If coming face-to-face with yet another over-cooked, sawdust dry turkey fills you with dread, try these delicious crunchy yuletide ideas to spice things up.
Peanuts and peanut butter are the perfect ingredients to add that special something to your Christmas fare. More than just a traditional accompaniment to drinks and a party snack, peanuts have always been a popular ingredient for sauces, dips and marinades and are great for stir-fries and winter salads.
Chilli peanut marinade
For a spicy turkey this Christmas, cover with Chilli and Peanut Marinade before cooking. You can also coat the inside of the turkey with some of the marinade, or mix it with stuffing.
This versatile and universal marinade works a treat with any meats, tiger prawns, tofu, in fact anything that needs spicing up! You can use it immediately, for example on chicken wings, or you can marinade a whole roast in the fridge for up to 24 hours.
Preparation time: 5minutes:
Makes enough marinade for a serving for 4 people
Ingredients
- 2.5cm/1 inch piece root ginger, crushed
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 2 tsp/5ml red chilli powder or 1 tsp/5ml crushed red chillies, or 2 fresh green chillies, de-seeded and chopped
- 1 tbsp/15ml groundnut oil
- 1 tbsp15ml honey
- 2 tsp/10ml coarse grain mustard
- 70g/2½ oz/ 4tbsp. smooth American peanut butter
- 2 tbsp/30ml light soy sauce
- 15g/½ oz coriander leaves, finely chopped
- 75ml/ 5 tbsp cold water
Method
1.Mix all the ingredients together and brush over your favourite meat, fish, tofu or
vegetables.
2. Cook either under the grill, in a non-stick pan, or in a moderately hot oven, depending on the food chosen.
Health Tip:
Peanut butter, be it smooth or crunchy, has the same type of fibre found in dried fruit and beans. This marinade benefits from being cholesterol-free and the peanut butter adds a range of vitamins including vitamin E and the B vitamins.
Cooks Tip:
This easy marinade can be made up and frozen in bulk. Simply defrost, stir well and use. You can either brush it onto the food, or just stir it into the raw ingredients, cover and store in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours.
Add a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar if using this for salmon, or use sesame oil instead of the peanut oil if coating chicken.
You can use smooth or crunchy peanut butter, and if you’re a real nut-o-holic, you can even throw in some chopped peanuts. If you don’t have coarse grain mustard, you can use any mustard – have it as hot as you dare!
Spicy peanut raisin cookies
This is a great one for occupying the kids in the run up to Christmas. They will love fingering the dough and decorating the top with peanuts. These cookies have that typical home-made appearance, since they are uneven shapes and have a crumbly texture.
Serves 4
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 10-12 minutes
Makes 25 cookies
Ingredients
- 200g plain flour (or
- 200g self raising flour and no baking powder)
- ½ tsp. baking powder
- ¼ tsp nutmeg
- ¼ tsp cinnamon
- 100g butter or margarine
- 80g sugar
- 100g crunchy American peanut butter
- 50g seedless raisins
- 1 egg, beaten
- 50g American Peanuts (unsalted)
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 190 °C/375 °F/Gas 5.
2. Mix the flour with the baking powder, nutmeg and cinnamon. Cut in the butter and rub this in lightly with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
3. Stir in the sugar, peanut butter, and raisins and mix well.
4. Mix in the egg to make a firm dough (you will find it easier to use your hands as the mixture gets firmer).
5. Form the dough into 25 small balls (about 3cm diameter) and press them onto a lightly floured baking tray. Press down each one with the back of a fork to make a pattern. (If you prefer large cookies, divide the dough into 15 larger balls).
6. Decorate the top with chopped peanuts.
7. Bake for 10-12 minutes until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.
Health Tip:
Bought biscuits can be very processed, and often contain additives to make them last longer. With this recipe, you’re sure that your kids get fresh ingredients, with peanuts and raisins to add fibre. The peanuts and the peanut butter provide a range of nutrients such as calcium, magnesium and zinc.
If you enjoyed Delicious crunchy yuletide ideas: chilli peanut satay + spicy peanut cookies, you’ll find more simple recipes on our Food and Drink channel.
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