Eat Me.

Anything you can do we can do vegan.

Monday, August 10, 2009

Peanut Sauce

So I promised about four and a half months ago to post a recipe from Thailand. Well here we go. I am going to give you an easy one for now - easy for me to explain and post that is. I know you can buy this in a jar. But it tastes so good made at home...

Peanut Sauce

Raw peanuts
Oil
Red curry paste (I had to use my trusty stand-in siracha)
1 quite ripe tomato (medium or two smaller plum), chopped
Coconut milk
Sugar
Soy sauce (light and dark)
Lime juice or vinegar

Remove all skins from peanuts. In a wok on very high heat stir around peanuts (one soup spoon full for this recipe only, more if you need to roast peanuts) until they are well roasted (brown... not burnt). Set aside. Or now that I think of it you could probably just use a soup spoon full of un-salted peanut butter as well...

Anyway now that your peanuts are roasted in the same super-hot wok add one soup spoon of oil and fry one half of same spoon full of red curry paste (or siracha to taste) and the chopped tomato. Turn down the heat a little and fry until the paste is fragrant stirring frantically all the while. Add three soup spoons of coconut milk and one soup spoon of your roasted peanuts. Add one soup spoon of sugar, one of light soy sauce and a half of the dark soy sauce. Keep stirring! Now watch the consistency and add three more soup spoons of coconut milk. If it is still quite thick you may add soup spoons of water one at a time. Keep stirring for five minutes - the peanuts and tomato break down to make a rich and glossy sauce. Right at the end add one soup spoon of lime juice.

It helps if you imagine a cute Thai lady yelling faster!! as you stir and toss in ingredients.

Enough sauce for dipping spring rolls or what have you for two people.

Notes:

The soup spoon I am referring to is like one you would get at an Asian restaurant when ordering soup. All recipes I picked up in Thailand from our cooking class measure simply in bowls and soupspoons. It's great for doubling up recipes to feed two (since everything we cooked was for a single serving) and you can use one spoon for the whole recipe.

I have been able to find light soy sauce here in the states but not the dark. So I just use a combination of regular old kikkoman or san-j soy sauce along with the light in these recipes.

Mite it.

I have these in my yard.