Friday, December 12, 2008

The problem with peanut sauce....

....is that it looks like someone barfed on your food.

Despite this unpleasant aesthetic reality, I ate three bowls of the pictured (barfy-looking) goodness last week. Brian was off on a work trip and that meant I got to do some more single-girl cooking. I chucked bean and cheese quesadillas at the critters more times than I care to count, and then assembled the big bowl of brown rice, steamed vegetables and tofu topped with tasty but ugly peanut sauce for myself. I layered raw spinach on the bottom, then hot brown rice (which wilts the spinach a little) and then the cut up steamed zucchini, red pepper, broccoli, green and yellow beans, carrots and tofu cubes. Then a few glops of barf-sauce and ta da! Dinner!

Here's my master recipe. I know that it's hard to crave something so completely un-photogenic, but I'm thinking that keeping a container of this peanut sauce, along with my favorite tahini lemon sauce, ready in the fridge at all times would be a good idea.

Peanut Sauce

1/2 C peanut butter (I like chunky, though it makes the sauce look even more like barf)
1 T soy sauce
2 T brown sugar
juice of 1 lime
1/2 C coconut milk
1/2 C water
1 large clove pressed garlic
about 2 inch knob of ginger, grated (microplane does a great job with it)
2 T fish sauce (optional) or add a little more soy sauce

Combine all the ingredients in a small saucepan and heat over medium heat. Whisk to combine all the elements until the sauce bubble and thickens. Can be served hot or cold.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

One of my favorite late elementary jokes that my dad and I used to tell went like this:
Kid: Mommy, mommy! Billy threw up!
Mommy: So we'll clean it up. What's the big deal?
Kid: He's eating the big pieces.

:)

Jen said...

You have NO idea how happy this post made me - barfy-looking or not, I've been looking for a good peanut sauce recipe for ages, and this is clearly a winner. I can just read the ingredients and know.

Thanks! Thanks twice in one day!

Diana Dyer said...

Years ago (before frugal became the "in thing") I started making my own peanut sauce because, yes, it is far less expensive than what one can purchase at the store, but more importantly, my own recipe tastes much better with no cryptic ingredients.

I look forward to trying your recipe and also your lemon tahini recipe!!