Cooking
Peanut sauce is better than 31 flavors of ice cream. Ok, that sounds completely ridiculous, but how many things are as versatile as peanut sauce? What else can you think of that perfectly complements raw or cooked vegetables, chicken, beef or shrimp satays or kebabs and hot or cold noodles? Perhaps some kind of vinaigrette, but I'd rather have the peanut sauce!
Peanut sauce is commonly found in the cuisine of various Asian countries. There is an Indonesian peanut sauce, which is served over a kind of vegetable salad, called gado gado, seen in the picture above. There is a Chinese peanut sauce served over noodles and a Thai curried version of peanut sauce served with slices of chicken or tofu over spinach. You can make it spicy or mild. You can use chopped peanuts or peanut butter. You can make it thin with water or thick and creamy with coconut milk. I even know some peanut butter-haters who love peanut sauce, that's how good it is.
I meant to post this recipe for a certain contest involving mid-week meals created in minutes, but being out of town I kinda blew it. In any case it's really useful to have a basic peanut sauce recipe on hand. I hope you like it as much as I do; please feel free to tweak it to make it "yours". Note: It doubles easily and keeps in the fridge for a week or so.
Perfect Peanut Sauce
Ingredients
1/4 cup peanut butter (natural, no sugar added kind)
2 teaspoon soy sauce
1 Tablespoon brown sugar
1 Tablespoon fresh lemon or lime juice
1/4 cup coconut milk (lite is fine, if you prefer or substitute water)
1/4 cup water
Red chili flake to taste
Chili garlic sauce to taste or 1 clove crushed garlic
Optional:
sesame oil
curry paste
rice wine vinegar
fish sauce
grated ginger
shallots sauteed till brown in oil
Worcestershire sauce (Raedia's idea)
Instructions
Combine all ingredients with a whisk in a small bowl, adding the water last. Pour into a small saucepan and heat over medium heat until sauce begins to bubble and thicken. Experiment with this sauce adding a teaspoon at a time of one the optional additions and tasting as you go. Serve hot or cold, store leftovers in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
Enjoy!
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Cooking
Perfect Peanut Sauce Recipe
Peanut sauce is better than 31 flavors of ice cream. Ok, that sounds completely ridiculous, but how many things are as versatile as peanut sauce? What else can you think of that perfectly complements raw or cooked vegetables, chicken, beef or shrimp satays or kebabs and hot or cold noodles? Perhaps some kind of vinaigrette, but I'd rather have the peanut sauce!
Peanut sauce is commonly found in the cuisine of various Asian countries. There is an Indonesian peanut sauce, which is served over a kind of vegetable salad, called gado gado, seen in the picture above. There is a Chinese peanut sauce served over noodles and a Thai curried version of peanut sauce served with slices of chicken or tofu over spinach. You can make it spicy or mild. You can use chopped peanuts or peanut butter. You can make it thin with water or thick and creamy with coconut milk. I even know some peanut butter-haters who love peanut sauce, that's how good it is.
I meant to post this recipe for a certain contest involving mid-week meals created in minutes, but being out of town I kinda blew it. In any case it's really useful to have a basic peanut sauce recipe on hand. I hope you like it as much as I do; please feel free to tweak it to make it "yours". Note: It doubles easily and keeps in the fridge for a week or so.
Perfect Peanut Sauce
Ingredients
1/4 cup peanut butter (natural, no sugar added kind)
2 teaspoon soy sauce
1 Tablespoon brown sugar
1 Tablespoon fresh lemon or lime juice
1/4 cup coconut milk (lite is fine, if you prefer or substitute water)
1/4 cup water
Red chili flake to taste
Chili garlic sauce to taste or 1 clove crushed garlic
Optional:
sesame oil
curry paste
rice wine vinegar
fish sauce
grated ginger
shallots sauteed till brown in oil
Worcestershire sauce (Raedia's idea)
Instructions
Combine all ingredients with a whisk in a small bowl, adding the water last. Pour into a small saucepan and heat over medium heat until sauce begins to bubble and thicken. Experiment with this sauce adding a teaspoon at a time of one the optional additions and tasting as you go. Serve hot or cold, store leftovers in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
Enjoy!
- Summer Rolls:recipe
When I first started eating Vietnamese food I was impressed with how often fresh uncooked herbs were used when compared to other Asian cuisines. And the quantity! Fresh herbs are used almost like salad instead of seasoning. Once when Lee and I were eating...
- 10 Minute Sesame Noodles Recipe
Condiments. I can't get enough of them. In our fridge we have no fewer than five mustards, six jams, seven Asian sauces, and various chutneys, Indian pickles, salsas, HP brown sauce, relish, horseradish sauce and ketchup. You name it, it's probably...
- Wonton Noodles With Chicken & Thai Peanut Sauce
Oh hey...look! Another Asian noodle dish. What are the odds... This is a recipe that called for spaghetti (heck, it's in the name), but I have issues with thin pastas so we opted to use a wonton noodle instead. Turns out, it wouldn't have mattered....
- Sesame Noodles With Prosciutto
From the most recent issue of Food & Wine...the whole issue is dedicated to Asian cuisine. So while Matt made sushi for me (we seem to have settled on 'sushi Sundays'), I prepared this dish for him. Chow mein noodles, cooked and tossed with...
- Are You Sick Of Chiles Yet?
Day Three: My dishwasher can't keep up... I really enjoy Mexican food. It does tend to dirty a lot of dishes, though...and my poor little dishwasher is working overtime! On to the food. Chicken in Peanut Sauce Another not-too-terribly laborious...