Cook the Book: PBJ
I must confess that I don't like peanut butter, nor its classic incarnation in a PBJ. It sticks to your mouth! Why would I want something to stick to the roof of my mouth like that? Yes, there's milk, but I don't want to be forced to drink milk like that. It's just not right. Anyway, don't let my slight revulsion towards peanut butter dissuade you from trying this PBJ from ' 'wichcraft.' The recipe calls for you to make your own rhubarb jelly, but there's actually very little active time. Try something new for your next PBJ and be classy-cool with homemade jelly. Just remember, jelly side up!
Win ''wichcraft'
In addition to excerpting a recipe each day this week, we're giving away five (5) copies of 'wichcraft: Craft a Sandwich Into a Meal and a Meal Into a Sandwich. Enter to win here ยป
PBJ
- makes 4 sandwiches -
Adapted from 'wichcraft by Tom Colicchio with Sisha Ortuzar.
Ingredients
4 cups diced trimmed rhubarb
2 cups plus 1 teaspoon sugar
Juice from 1 lemon
1 teaspoon powdered pectin
8 tablespoons peanut butter
8 slices Pullman bread
Procedure
To make the rhubarb jelly:
1. In a bowl, combine the rhubarb, 2 cups sugar, and lemon juice and refrigerate overnight in a tightly covered container. The next day, in a small saucepan, bring the rhubarb-and-sugar mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside.
2. In a small bowl, combine the pectin and remaining teaspoon sugar and temper it by adding small amounts of the hot rhubarb mixture and quickly stirring it. Add it to the rest of the rhubarb and return the saucepan to the stove and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat and place into a clean container with a lid. Once it has cooled down, close the lid and store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
To make the sandwiches:
Evenly spread the peanut butter on 4 slices of bread. Spread 2 tablespoons of jelly on each of the other 4 slices. Close the sandwiches, cut into halves, and serve.
Add a comment:
Previewing your comment:
HTML Hints
Some HTML is OK: <a href="URL">link</a>, <strong>strong</strong>, <em>em</em>
Comment Guidelines
Post whatever you want, just keep it seriously about eats, seriously. We reserve the right to delete off-topic or inflammatory comments. Learn more at our Comment Policy page.
If you see something not so nice, please, report an inappropriate comment.
6 Comments:
while i think NY makes us better ppl, by a measure involving humility and productivity, i think LA is the more interesting city, for it feels even more infinite, if such a thing is possible. i wish i had had more gas money, time, and patience to have explored more of it. i dunno, this just made me really nostalgic...
oliveyou at 1:59PM on 04/08/09
oops wrong post
oliveyou at 2:01PM on 04/08/09
grace, that's why you need the perfect ratio of peanut butter to jelly. the sweet, gelatinous jelly seems to have some chemical reaction when mixed with peanut butter that keeps it from sticking to the roof of your mouth ;-) together, they are among the best of sweet and savoury! plus, i think that's why we go jelly side up!
nithya at hungrydesi at 2:11PM on 04/08/09
In the fall of 1954, I was a junior officer on a destroyer returning from NATO exercises in the Med. We ran into a hurricane just off the Azores, and everybody on board ate peanut butter sandwiches for five full days, because it was too rough to do anything like cooking in either the crews' mess or the wardroom kitchen. (Destroyers are like that in rough weather.)
There are a lot of people from long ago on the USS Stribling who are still not fond of peanut butter sandwiches, no matter how innovative.
MikeLM at 12:51AM on 04/09/09
Grace, you're certainly entitled to loathe pbjs, but having a pb loather review a pb sandwich is like, well, like me reviewing a book on how to cook bacon.
HeartofGlass at 5:49AM on 04/09/09
Awesome! The boyfriend and I bought some lackluster rhubarb jelly and I wanted to make him the good stuff (dude loves his 'barb). Now I have a good recipe for that! Thanks, SE!
onalark at 11:23AM on 04/09/09