Recipe: Peanut Sauce Made with Whole Peanuts and Variations (make ahead)

PEANUT SAUCE MADE WITH WHOLE PEANUTS

"Although we have good peanut butter now - freshly made, organic, unadulterated with sugar and additional oil - I prefer making a peanut sauce from roasted peanuts. Somehow, it's just better. Many interesting ingredients can go into peanut sauce (see variations below). In the end, it's very much about your own taste - whether you lean toward the sweet, hot, or salty. Many peanut sauces include fish sauce and some cooks prefer to add granulated sugar rather than brown. Taste as you go to get your sauce the way you like it.

Where to use it? With pan-seared tofu, noodles of all kinds, over rice, or with grilled eggplant and sweet potatoes."

1 cup roasted peanuts, preferably unsalted
1 tablespoon roasted peanut oil or toasted sesame oil
Grated zest and juice of 1 or 2 limes
2 plump cloves garlic, chopped
4 teaspoons tamari or soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon prepared Thai roasted chile paste (nahm prik pao)
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 cup coconut milk or water
Sea salt

Combine the peanuts, oil, lime zest and juice, garlic, tamari, chile paste, brown sugar, and about two-thirds of the coconut milk in a food processor and pulse until smooth. The sauce should be thick but somewhat fluid. If it seems too thick, add in the remaining coconut milk or water. Taste for heat, salt, and sugar and adjust accordingly.

Store any unused sauce in the refrigerator. It will keep for a week.

VARIATIONS:

WITH TAMARIND:
To sharpen the flavor of the sauce, add 1/2 to 1 teaspoon tamarind paste.

WITH CILANTRO:
Include 1 cup chopped cilantro and 2 tablespoons chopped mint leaves for a greener, fresher sauce.

WITH DIFFERENT HEAT:
Add 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper or chipotle chile powder in place of the Thai chile paste.

Makes about 1 cup
Used by permission to Recipelink.com from Ten Speed Press
Adapted from source: Vegetable Literacy by Deborah Madison