Staying In No. 50
Why is everyone obsessed with peanut butter toast?
Welcome! This is “Staying In,” a Sunday newsletter with recipe ideas for your week ahead. Every other Thursday I also publish a “Going Out” edition where I review a restaurant, bar, or activity here in Portland. Want even more recommendations? Check out pdxrecs.com and follow RR on Instagram at @rileysrecs. Enjoy!
As I was browsing recipes this week, I noticed that NYTimes Cooking had not one but two featured recipes for peanut butter dishes: Peanut Butter Sandwich With Sriracha and Pickles and Hong Kong-Style French Toast (stuffed with peanut butter).
I checked Google Trends and, sure enough, there’s been a steady stream of PB toast searches over the past few weeks. Why is everyone suddenly into peanut butter toast??
In other nut butter news, Europe has banned the import of the Algerian chocolate hazelnut spread, El Mordjene. It’s a competitor to Nutella from a former French colony and the conspiracy theories over the ban are going wild. The New Yorker has a great writeup on the nut butter ban’s political implications.
There will not be any peanut butter toast or hazelnut spread recipes in this week’s recipe plan. BUT I am including a recipe for Chicken Mafe, the Senegalese peanut butter and tomato stew. Because I’m on trend.
Enjoy!
Riley
✨ Inspo ingredients for the week: peanut butter ✨
DINNERS
Chicken Mafe | Rice
Dumpling Tomato Salad With Chile Crisp Vinaigrette
Gazpacho | Cheese and Crackers
Peanut Butter Tofu | Rice
LUNCH
Iceberg Lettuce, Cucumber, Tomato, and Crispy Shallot
WEEKEND BAKE
Strawberry Shortcake
Notes:
For lunch, I’m going to make the salad dressing from last week and then throw a bunch of veggies and iceberg lettuce in a bowl. I’ll also microwave more shallots because it’s SO SHOCKINGLY EASY to do.
PB Tofu dish recipe here. I make this all the time!
Gazpacho recipe here. It’s perfect for hot summer days!
Chicken Mafe
Francis Lam | New York Times (Gift Link)
There was a period of time when I was very into Francis Lam, chef and host of the NPR program Splendid Table. As I gobbled up whatever recipes he recommended, his recipe for chicken mafe caught my eye. I swear I cooked it at least once a month for a year. It’s so good, and I can’t believe I haven’t shared the recipe here yet. This would make a great dish to bring to a sick friend or someone who just had a baby: it travels well, makes huge quantities, and can be frozen. For all of those reasons, it makes a great Sunday night meal, too, that leaves you with plenty of leftovers.
Dumpling Tomato Salad With Chile Crisp Vinaigrette
Hetty Lui McKinnon | New York Times (Gift Link)
Ariel from (fellow RR!) did a Substack Live Video this week where she filmed herself making this dumpling tomato salad recipe from . It’s really similar to Hetty’s ever-popular dumpling and cucumber salad, but instead of umami peanut butter notes, this version is bright and spicy and includes tomatoes. Ariel beefed up the recipe with some spinach, but I’ll probably just make as written.
Strawberry Shortcake
Alex Roberts | Alexander Bakes
I made these shortcakes spontaneously last week. It took a total of 10 minutes of prep time, and I was blown away by the results. I feel like I’ve had a decent number of shortcakes over here in Oregon thanks to our bountiful strawberry farms. A lot of the shortcakes I’ve eaten have been from Burgerville, sure, but this one took the (short)cake.
The dough comes from a blend of almond flour, cornmeal, and AP flour. But if you don’t have any of the speciality flours on hand, you can just use AP. You can eat them “open-faced,” but I went for it and stacked everything between two biscuits for a sandwich effect. It was so good that I’m making them again this week!
If you liked reading this, click the ❤️ button on this post so more people can discover it on Substack!
Omg hi thanks for the shoutout!!! I didn’t even realize there was a cucumber dumpling salad version ahah. That also looks great ❤️❤️. Also that is the cutest pupperino!!
What happened with the absence of pb toast searches during the week of May 17th on the graph? Curious!