A digression, dinner, departure

MOFO EPISODE V

A spherical ship cuts through the time stream, on its way from then to now and later still, generating the temporal equivalent of a sonic boom.

But anyway ...

Towards the end of a terribly long breakfast Sherman pulled Peabody aside.

"Good Doctor you really shouldn't keep secrets! I don't understand this Dr. Kellogg. What pray tell is going on?"

"Near as I can figure at an unknown time in my future which is in Kellogg's past I visit him for an unknown purpose, instructing him to not reveal to me what I know then but not yet now. Terribly confusing, but that is my lot in life I guess ..."

Kellogg approached. "If you gentlemen have finished your breakfast I shall have dinner brought out."

"Dinner?", Peabody and Sherman exclaimed together.

"Yes, I'm afraid we have missed lunch and are clean through to dinner time. So dinner it is. We'll be having roast Nuttose!"

"I apologize but we really must be going. Come along Sherman."

"But where will you go?", asked Kellogg.

"Back in the crate of course ..."

After the CHESTT door closed Sherman asked about their abrupt exit.

Peabody answered with one word: "Nuttose." He typed at a console for a while and handed Sherman the resulting printout.

Tomato Nuttose
adapted from http://www.vegan-food.net/recipe/1350/Tomato-Nuttose

6 T creamy peanut butter
1 cup tomato pulp
1 cup bread crumbs
1/4 t sage
1/2 t salt
1/4 t marjoram
Onion salt or celery salt (probably garlic salt if you want)

Cream peanut butter into 2/3 cup hot water. Add tomato pulp. Put bread crumbs in bowl and mix the herbs and salt. Add to tomato and nut butter mixture. Add flavored salt to taste. form mixture into a loaf, wrap loosely in foil, and steam 2 1/2 to 3 hours. 

"Nuttose. One of many early meat analogs. The first in fact, some say. Not one of my favorite dishes. You should try it someday though, Sherman. In fact you'll get a chance to try making a batch soon! On a twentieth century cookstove! We need to pop over to jolly old England for a bit so I can verify some information with Donald Watson. Of course England is not so jolly during the time we will be visiting. World War II and all ..."

CHESTT shuddered. Unusual, that. But Peabody was unconcerned. "Ah, we've arrived! I give you ... KESWICK!"

Peabody stepped out of the front door on to a green field which rolled gently down to a river.

"Oh my," Peabody said. An understatement.

Keswick simply wasn't there.

Nut butter with sprouts and vindication

Just a personal history note today. Don't worry, I'll get back to the other stuff. Just indulge me a bit. It will soon be over. :)

Some time in the early 90s I developed a taste for a particular sandwich - peanut butter and alfalfa sprouts on a garlic bagel. I'm not sure when I first tried this combination or why I thought it would be a good idea. The way the counter help stared in disbelief when I'd order this little piece o' heaven I could have been sprouting a second nose or something.

Shrug.

Guess it is odd. Probably not a combination too many people have tried. Or so I thought.

This afternoon I was researching old vegan cookbooks when I ran across this suggested make-ahead lunch on page 70 of the March 1981 Vegetarian Times:

"nut butter and sprouts"

Not  exactly what I came to call "lesser sandwich of the gods" - the garlic bagel is absolutely essential - but the world still seems a little less bleak knowing there are others who have eaten of the PB&sprouts tree.

POSTSCRIPT:

"Lesser sandwich of the gods" suggests a question - is there a "greater"? Yes, there is. Apple butter and almond butter on whole wheat.

But I should really be getting back to larger topics ...

Peanut Soup

Adapted from A Vegetarian in the Family (1977), page 25

2 servings

1 cup vegetable stock
1/4 cup peanut butter
scarce 1/2 cup soymilk
1/4 tsp chili powder

Bring stock to boil in a pan. Whisk in the peanut butter. Reduce heat to a simmer. Add soymilk and chili powder. Allow to simmer for 15 minutes. Add salt to taste.

RECIPE NOTES:

Most of the dishes in this book are fairly everyday type food. There is little in the way of flash or flair. What intrigued me about this dish are its (unstated) African origins. It stands out compared to other more humdrum dishes.

The original recipe calls for 1/4 tsp salt, which I have changed to 'season to taste'. Peanut butter usually contains salt, as do many stocks. Additional salt will often be unnecessary.

Note 'natural' peanut butter should be used. Peanut butter should contain no more than 3 ingredients: peanuts, oil, and salt. Any additional ingredients are usually unnecessary.

Other than eliminating the additional salt my 'adaptations' are merely 'fixing' the quantities listed so they fit contemporary recipe style (e.g. '1 cup' instead of '1/2 pint')