How to Make Manteca de Mani (Peanut Butter) from Scratch in the Paraguayan Campo

Step 1: In late October or early November clean your field with an ox-powered tractor and plant your Mani depending on the time, rain fall, and variety of mani. But hey, it’s not an exact science, and what matters most is that you have the time and energy to do it and if need be that your neighbor may let you borrow the ox to do the cleaning.

Step 2: Generally, you pray (or maybe do some little dance and chant) for good weather and rain, no disease so the plants can grow happy and hoe those weeds between the rows of the mani at least once, ideally a few times through the season.

Step 3: It’s finally late February, and the temperature has cooled a bit, ideally after a light rain, but before heavy rain begins. Harvest the mani plants from the root. Load the mani on your ox-cart and take it home, or maybe you just carry it on your back in sacs, or use a wheelbarrow (made of wood through and through) to transport it home.

Step 4: Once home, you store the plants in a cool dry place if available, and most importantly somewhere the chickens don’t get to it, or at least under a tree, with a rope from the tree that has a couple large sacs tied to it, so that in the danger of hungry approaching chickens, you can sapucai (yell out) and tug on the rope from the distance to wave the sacs and scare off the chickens.

Step 5: Once you have the time, and hopefully some help, you yank those mani pods off the plants, choosing the ones that feel full from grown seeds, leaving behind the ones that feel hollow when pinched.

Step 6: Leave the mani pods to dry out in the sun at least for a day, also trying to prevent inconsiderate chickens from eating them all up, using the scare-off method described in Step 4 or some similarly devised method, like on some elevated surface the chicken’s won’t get to.

Step 7: Take the shells off the mani (by hand of course).

Step 8: Toast the mani in a single sheet on low temperature in your gas or brick oven, or fogon. Take care to not burn it of course. It may take 10-20 minutes, until the mani is smells and looks roasted but not burnt.

Step 9: peel the skin off each one. It should peel easily by pinching and be golden brown. It’s usually easier after toasting, but can be done beforehand too.

Step 10: In a blender, put a handful of mani in, and everything from here is basically to personal taste: a pinch of salt, brown or regular sugar, and a spoon or two of oil (preferably some neutral or sweet oil like soy/sunflower, but vegetable is ok). Then just blend until desired consistency.

Step 11: Store and enjoy! Delicious with some store bought or homemade jalea (jelly) of any variety of fruits. I’ve been using it with marmalade from the fruit of a tree, similar to a cherry, but more like a purple grape, which I have yet to identify. Similar to Yvapuru but not quite.