A Nutty, American Classic

It’s National Peanut Butter Cookie Day! Let’s celebrate and eat cookies! 

But first, let’s learn things so we can reward our learning by eating all of those cookies. Let’s start at the very beginning.  Peanut butter. God’s food. I’m sorry if you have a peanut allergy, but I guess that just means more peanut butter for me.  Silver lining.

Peanut butter was invented by the Aztecs back in the early 1400s, but it wasn’t until Dr. John Harvey Kellogg (yup, that Kellogg) invented a version of peanut butter in 1895 and patented the process for creating peanut butter from raw peanuts that we got something more closely resembling the butter we have today.  Though it existed, it wasn’t really a thing here in the U.S. until the early 1900s when Dr. George Washington Carver started to promote the peanut crop as a replacement for the cotton crop which had been destroyed by the boll weevil.  Considered by many to be the father of the peanut industry, he developed more than 300 uses for peanuts.  His publication, “How to Grow the Peanut and 105 Ways of Preparing it for Human Consumption” advocated peanut butter as a substitute for butter or lard in recipes, and shared three cookie recipes which called for merely crushed nuts, not the puree that we use today.  "Modern" peanut butter was officially introduced at the St. Louis World’s fair in 1904.

In 1922, Joseph L. Rosefield began selling a number of brands of peanut butter in California. These peanut butters were churned like butter so they were smoother than the gritty peanut butters of the time.  He received the first patent for a shelf-stable peanut butter, which would stay fresh for up to a year because the oil didn't separate from the peanut butter. 

Now that we know a little bit about the star ingredient, how did all of this turn into one of our most loved cookies?  While cookies containing peanuts in some variety were not uncommon, not until Mrs. Rorer’s New Cook Book, published in 1902, did a recipe actually call for peanut butter. Her recipe instructs shaping the cookies into balls, not as we often times see them today.  Today, peanut butter cookies often have a trademark hashtag imprint on the top, and the first time that these fork marks were widely instructed to be placed on the cookie tops was in a recipe from Pillsbury’s Balanced Recipes in 1933, and it was from this time on that peanut butter cookies became popular in kitchens across America.

Now, time for cookies. My mom collected this recipe at the tender age of "before-high school." I’ve heard time and again how Arthur Munch (her childhood best friend) of Buffalo, New York’s mom made the best peanut butter cookies and how even then back in the day, mom thought enough to secure the recipe. Tweaked to be her own, of course, it’s really easy to remember (everything, you’ll see, is in ½ cup increments) and never fails to be a fan favorite. 

Makes about 18 cookies

Ingredients 

½ cup butter, unsalted
½ cup crunchy peanut butter (preference: JIF)
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup brown sugar
1 egg, large
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1 ½ cup flour 
1 cup peanut butter chips (preferably Reese’s)

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350F.

In a stand mixer (or, by hand, if you choose), cream the butter, sugars, and baking soda until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the peanut butter and beat another 3 or so minutes until fluffy and well incorporated.

Add the egg and vanilla. Mix well. Slowly add the flour and mix until the mixture forms one ball.

Mix in the peanut butter chips. Don’t over beat.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Roll the dough, about 1 TB at a time, into balls and place on the cookie sheet about 2 inches apart (12 cookies per sheet). With a fork, press the dough down to flatten the cookie.

Bake 9-12 minutes until golden brown. Let cool about 3 minutes on the cookie sheet before removing to a wire rack to continue cooling.

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Chew on this: 

Why the hashtag?  No one quite knows, but it serves as a useful distinguishing marker, especially those who may suffer from peanut allergies.

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Chrissy Barua lives in Lincoln Park and successfully lawyers by day despite an addiction to bad movies, cookies, and travel. She'll be bringing you monthly doses of delicious as she tries to track down the best grandma recipes she can find. (Follow her on her other cooking adventures at The Hungary Buddha Eats the World.)

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Do you have a family-favorite recipe for this cookie tray staple? Send them our way! Comment below or send them our way on any of our social networks. Don't forget to tag @Foodseum and use the hashtag #FeedYourCuriosity for a chance to see your recipe featured.

Who You Callin' a Shrimp?

Shrimp. So versatile.

You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. Dey's uh, shrimp-kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried. There's pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich...

Perfectly articulated by Bubba in Forrest Gump, the laundry list of ways to cook and eat shrimp is seemingly endless, and for good reason.  It’s low in fat, high in protein, and a blank slate, ready to be painted with any number of flavors.  Definitely worthy of its own day.

Don’t you agree?  Seems many do, since National Shrimp Day is May 10th!

There are over 2,000 species of shrimp in the world, and each species’ flavor and texture is influenced by where it comes from, where it is raised, and what it eats. Wild shrimp live on river beds and ocean floors around the world, filtering particles in the water and feeding on seaweed and crustaceans, all of which gives them a more enriched flavor and thicker shells compared to their farm-raised friends.

Shrimp are loaded with healthy nutrients like lean protein, B vitamins, iron, and omega-3s, without the calories and fat present in other sources of these vital nutrients. As we’ve all been told over and over again, the omega-3s found in seafood such as shrimp have been shown to lower blood pressure and triglycerides, improve vascular function, and ease inflammation.  It also turns out that shrimp contain at least three unique antioxidants: astaxanthin, and the minerals selenium and copper.

While shrimp do have measured benefits, opponents to shrimp consumption argue that it’s not all that it’s cracked up to be.  Contaminated ocean waters, overfishing, poor farming practices, potential detrimental effects of certain fishing methods on wildlife, and shellfish contamination (especially mercury) are all reasons to pass on the seafood.  Additionally, the effect of farming practices on the environment have been argued in some cases to be harmful- foreign shrimp ponds discharge polluted water into nearby land and waterways, destroying land often used for agriculture as well as drinking water.

Despite its opponents, shrimp is the #1 most consumed seafood in the United States.  While the shrimp harvested in the U.S. come from the Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf coast, most of the shrimp that we consume here, as high as 90%, is actually imported and farm-raised, with Pacific white being the most popular species. 

When choosing shrimp at the market, choose one that boasts an ocean-side fragrance, with a plump and juicy texture. When you get home, rinse them under cold water before tightly covering and refrigerating. Better yet, cook and consume as soon as you get back from your fish monger. 

Cooking shrimp takes little time and results in a dramatic color change from grey to pink, giving the cook a built-in tell of when to take them off the stove!  This color change has to do with the antioxidant astaxanthin contained in their shells and in the shells of other crustaceans such as crab and lobster.  When uncooked, the astaxanthin pigments are hidden by protein chains that give shells the blueish-grey color. When the protein strands are destroyed by heat, the astaxanthin molecules are released, and shrimp’s color explodes to orange.

All of this talk of shrimp is making me hungry, and so I think it’s time for a recipe.  In honor of National Shrimp Day, this grandma recipe comes to me from Jackie Flowers.  When I asked her for a suggestion, she brought in her family’s cookbook that is heavily loved, held together by masking tape and dotted with hand-written annotations. The best kind of cookbook.  Jackie’s family comes from Belize, a nation whose cuisine is influenced by Mayans, Mexicans, Lebanese, Mennonites, Chinese, and most notably, the Creoles (who were, in turn, influenced by both African slaves and European colonists). It’s from this last group from which todays’ recipe, shrimp creole, draws inspiration today.

Shrimp Creole
Serves 4

1- 1/2 pounds fresh shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 TB olive oil
½ large yellow onion, diced into small pieces
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 small green pepper, cored, seeded and diced into pieces the same size as the onion
1 cup diced tomatoes (you can use fresh, I used ½ a can)
¾ cup of white wine (I used Savignon Blanc)
2 TB fresh basil, cut into ribbons
2 TB fresh parsley, coarsely chopped
½ tsp salt
½ tsp black pepper
½ TB Worcestershire Sauce
1 TB hot sauce
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp dried oregano
½ tsp cayenne pepper
1 bay leaf
2 TB heavy cream (optional, eyeball it)
White or brown rice, to accompany

Heat the oil in a heavy skillet. Add the onions, garlic and green pepper, bay leaf and spices. Cook over medium heat until soft, about 5 minutes.

Add the wine, and scrape the bottom of the pan to remove any bits. Add the tomatoes and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer about 20 minutes until some of the liquid has been reduced.

Once the liquid has reduced, add the shrimp and cover and let cook about 5-7 minutes until the shrimp are all cooked (this shouldn't take long). Stir in the cream and add the basil and parsley at the end, right before you serve it.

Notes:  Bacon would be so good in this. So would some andouille sausage.

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Chew on this: Some shrimp species are hermaphroditic.  Namely, peppermint shrimp first mature as males, and sometimes turn into a hermaphrodite with both male and female sexual organs.

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Do you have any favorite shrimp recipes? Share them with us below or on any of our social media platforms. Don't forget to use the hashtag #FeedYourCuriosity and tag @Foodseum! 

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Chrissy Barua lives in Lincoln Park and successfully lawyers by day despite an addiction to bad movies, cookies, and travel. She'll be bringing you monthly doses of delicious as she tries to track down the best grandma recipes she can find. (Follow her on her other cooking adventures at The Hungary Buddha Eats the World.)