Peanut Sauce

Food Process or Otherwise Chop Fine:

2 Cloves Garlic
1/4 Onion
3 Slices Ginger
1 Stalk Fresh Lemongrass
1 Tsp Whole Coriander
5 Thai Hot Chiles
1 Tsp Cumin

You can run the coriander berries through a spice grinder first for a finer texture, but the food processor does a pretty good job on its own.

Heat Peanut Oil in Small Sauce pan. Add:

Small Can Coconut Milk
1/2 Cup Peanut Butter
1 Tbsp Tamarind Juice, paste, whatever you can find
the spice mixture from above

You can make a no-onion-family version by eliminating the garlic and onion, and increasing the ginger and lemongrass. If you don't have fresh anything, you can substitute dried powdered forms instead. If you can't find Thai peppers, you can use a lot of different things to increase the hot (or leave it out if you like it mild), the simplest being dried pepper flakes.

I do not recommend adding soy sauce, fish sauce, oyster sauce, black pepper (you never thought I'd say it) or white pepper to this sauce.

Serve with Satay.

When reheating the sauce, you may need to incorporate additional liquid to thin it out some (or if you want to use it over Vegetables).

Created January 30, 2002
Updated January 30, 2002