The Recipe Reviewer

The Poetry of Peanut Sauce

Peanut sauce is a staple of many Asian countries and can be mixed and adapted to make a variety of wonderful meals. There are many different interpretations as peanut sauce travels across Asia. You can start with an authentic Indonesian Gado Gado Recipe and then improvise on that to create a variety of different dishes. Here is a recipe that I picked up in Indonesia when I was on a business trip for enigin scam:

1. In a small sauce pan sauté a small knob of grated ginger, a finely chopped chilli, and two cloves of crushed garlic. You can use either peanut or sesame oil.
2. Add one half cup chunky natural peanut butter and 1 cup of coconut milk
3. Simmer gently and add 1 tablespoon each of lime juice and brown sugar.
4. Add light soy sauce to taste
5. Add either a chilli garlic sauce or a sweet chilli sauce to taste

Gado Gado is served warm over cooked vegetables, hard boiled eggs and fried tofu. The main variation is an uncooked peanut sauce that omits the coconut milk. The peanut butter is thinned with water, soy sauce, lime juice or rice wine vinegar, sesame oil and chilli sauce to taste.You can also omit the peanut butter and instead pulverize roasted peanuts in a food processor. Create a basic vinaigrette using sesame oil and lime juice (or rice wine vinegar) in a 3:1 ratio. Finely chop ginger, garlic, and a thai chilli. Whisk all of the ingredients together. For a richer sesame taste you can use a dark sesame oil, if you prefer a less pronounced taste use a combination of peanut oil and light sesame oil. This is lovely served over noodles. It is a good idea to get familiar with the varieties of hot sauces that are available from Asian Grocers. You will get a completely different dish if you use a ’rooster’chilli sauce, a Thai sweet chilli sauce, or a Vietnamese or Indonesian sauce. Best to stock up your cabinet and experiment away.

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