Peanut Sauce

Name: Peanut Sauce
Yield: makes about 300 ml / ½ pint
Cuisine: Asia
Ingredients: 1 tbsp dark soy sauce; ½ tsp sugar; ½ tsp salt; 2 tbsp tamarind water or lemon juice; 2 tbsp olive oil; 1 tsp shrimp paste; 3 garlic cloves, chopped; 3 shallots or 1 onion, chopped; 225 g/ 8 oz raw shelled (but still with their pink skins) peanuts; 115 ml/ 4 fl oz groundnut or sunflower oil; ½ tsp ground cumin; 1 tsp ground coriander; ½ tsp chilli powder

Preparation info

makes about
300 ml

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

New Wave Asian

By Sri Owen

Published 2002

About

I have adapted this from various recipes widely known in Southeast Asia to make a basic peanut sauce that will go well as a dressing for vegetables, or as a dip and a sauce with grilled meat, fish or shellfish. This doesn’t mean it has become bland – it is still an assertive, piquant sauce, full of Eastern flavour.

Ingredients

115 ml/ 4 fl oz groundnut or sunflower oil
225 g/

Asia
Sauce
Southeast Asia

Method

Heat the oil in a wok or saucepan and fry the peanuts for 4 minutes, stirring them frequently. With a slotted spoon, transfer them to a colander lined with absorbent paper and leave them to cool. Then grind them to a fine powder in a blender or coffee grinder.

Make the spice paste: put all the ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. Transfer to a wok or large shallow saucepan