Ose Oji (Spicy peanut butter)

Ose Oji, spicy peanut butter also called Okw’ose in the Igbo tradition, is a spicy smooth blend of peanuts. It is served as a dip for kolanut, oji and garden egg, anala/afufa, to visitors to the home or during ceremonies.

Ose oji can be bought already made from the open market, but my mother, due to her aversion to buying already made food from the local markets, used to make her own, that way she could also control the spiciness.

It is pretty simple to make using the hand mill grinder, dry mill blender or food processor. The creamiest and smoothest blend is by the heavy-duty electric grinder used in the local markets in Nigeria. The dry mill of the blender and the food processor give pretty good blends though this depends on your patience and power of the machine. There might still be some grittiness but it won’t be so noticeable.

It is best made with shelled, roasted skinless peanuts. If you only have raw peanuts, roast them in the oven before use. There is really no need to add oil to your Ose oji, peanuts have enough oil to give a smooth blend. The small-sized peanut gives a smoother blend because it has a higher oil content than the larger sized species.

To make Ose Oji (Spicy peanut butter)

2 cups skinned roasted peanuts (ground nuts)
2 toasted ehuru
1 seasoning cube
toasted dry chili

Put peanuts, ehuru, seasoning cube and dry chilli into the dry mill of the blender, food processor or hand mill grinder.

Grind on high.

Initially, it will be sandy, scrape the sides and continue grinding.

Make sure you let your grinder or processor rest in between grinding to avoid a blowout.

The peanut powder will start clumping together, scrape sides and continue grinding.

At this point, the clumps will start getting smoother and creamier.

The butter will not need much scraping and the machine will run smoother.

Keep grinding until the texture is right.

Notes

• If you can’t find Ehuru (calabash nutmeg), try using regular nutmeg. Add a little at a time.
• With the hand mill, you will need to grind a couple of times to get the spicy peanut butter really smooth, so you need some elbow grease.
• For the food processor, once it starts getting creamy, you don’t really need to scrape the sides anymore. Make sure you start out with a good volume of peanuts for the size of your processor. The larger the food processor, the larger the quantity of peanut needed for it to grind efficiently.
• For the blender dry mill, you will need to work in small batches.

Storage of Ose Oji

• Store Ose oji in an airtight container.
• Peanut has a low moisture level and the peanut oil has a high smoke point, so it doesn’t go rancid easily.
• It can be stored in or out of the refrigerator for an extended period.
• Peanut has high vitamin E content, which is an antioxidant, this also helps it resist rancidity.
• After some time, since this is pure Peanut butter with no stabilizing additives, the oil will rise to the top, just mix it back in and eat.
• Storing in the refrigerator prevents this separation but hardens the butter, just leave it at room temperature for about 10 minutes to soften.

If you enjoyed my Ose Oji (spicy peanut butter) you will also enjoy my Homemade peanut butter, Homemade cashew butter, Easy Applesauce and Chocolate syrup.

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