Sometimes I like to fly by the seat of my pants. No plans, no forethought. Just an idea and the faith that I can make it happen. Last Friday, I went out with friends to The Foundation, one my favored Vancouver eating spots. Vancouver is in the midst of a boil-water advisory due to all the insane amount of rainfall we’ve been having. No worries, though, as there was enough beer to keep us all afloat. I was modest in my choice of soup but I did manage to snag a few forkfulls of my friends pasta dish, the aptly named “Spicy Peanut”. Oh the deliciousness that danced on my tongue that night! It was a party for the tastebuds and I’ve been dreaming of that damned “Spicy Peanut” ever since.
This evening without nary a look into the cupboards or fridge, I decided that hell or turbid water, I would make the Spicy Peanut dish! Unfortunately, I was out of fresh ginger, sambal oelek, limes, and my soy sauce bottle was almost empty. Did I let that deter me from the power of the Spicy Peanut? I think not. So I made do with what I could scrounge up, squeeze out and hastily substitute. And you know what? The results tasted pretty damn close to the mighty fine “Spicy Peanut” from The Foundation. This sauce will be a work in progress. Of course I’ll make it again with fresh lime juice instead of lemon juice and I’m sure it will taste infinitely more fabulous with fresh ginger, and I’m sure a healthy dollop of chili-garlic sauce will render my black pepper additions useless. But, you know, I’m not ready to bad mouth this sauce for what it could have been. This velvety, coconutty, smooth concoction is a dream. If I could marry it I would. I mean, while you know there might be a Top-Of-The-Line Peanut Sauce out there, you just gotta love the one you’re with.
I served this decadant sauce over whole wheat pasta, stir fried tofu, red onion and green peppers (the only vegetables I had!) and a tiny bit of shredded leftover chicken. This sauce would make a great dipping sauce for satay or fried tofu or poured over baked yams or steamed spinach. Oh the possibilities!
my spicy peanut sauce
1 c natural peanut butter
1 can light coconut milk
2 T fresh lemon juice
2 T soy sauce
1 T fish sauce (if you want to make this vegetarian, leave out & put 1T of soy sauce in its place)
2 T hot sauce
2 t ginger powder
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 T brown sugar
1 t ground black pepper
dash of saltAdd all of the ingredients into a small saucepan. Stir over low heat until everything is warm and blendy. Taste and adjust seasonings if needed.
Print This RecipeAnd the title of my blog post? Well, I have Shake Your Fist to thank. Amy wrote about Dr. Joel and included a link to a song that I pretty much OD’d on in July. The track is gone off of Amy’s blog, but you can hear Ravenous Like a Tiger on YouTube. So good!
This looks really good!
You are so inspirational!
I have a bottle of spicy peanut sauce in my refrigerator but because of all the added no-no’s I’ve taken to creating my own nutty sauce from simple ingredients like almond butter, chili pepper flakes, sesame oil, and lots of garlic and a little dash of mango juice and salt.
It is sooooo good! Soooo good!
I drizzle it onto everything: potatoes, rice, quinoa, greens, I’ve even been known to eat it straight from the food processor with a spoon 🙂
p.s. The song is quite amusing and catchy 🙂
Haha–Dr. Joel’s great. He actually contacted me after my post and is a very sweet guy. A friend in England who’s seen his live act says it’s appropriately “wild.”
The sauce sounds so great and so does that restaurant. Wish I could go there for lunch today…especially since we have snow and it’s -17.
This looks very good, but I’m still waiting for you to bake some bread… you know you want to…
thanks rachel, it is. lucky too because the recipe makes a lot!
joanne, using almond butter sounds delish!
that’s awesome, amy! i love that song.
sara, minus 17!! that is nothing but crazy. funny thing, it just started snowing here. a definite rare occurance!
brilynn, i totally will make bread. soon! (i just have to work up the nerve).
hey kickpleat!!
This is Alicat from Something So Clever. I am listed in your sidebar under “Blogs I Dig.”
I just wanted to let you know that the link you have for me is no longer a valid URL. I am switching websites so the Typepad URL won’t be working anymore. The new address is http://www.somethingsoclever.com
I know it can be a hassle to update templates often, so I hope I don’t come across as pushy. I just am letting everyone know that I have changed addresses and that I hope very much that I continue to have you as a reader. :O)
~Alicat
This sounds great! Thanks for sharing this recipe…i’m bookmarking it 🙂 I’m sure it’ll be really delicious with prawns…
e-mail me, okay? may have a work related lead for you …
pssst! How about a sandwich posting?
…everybody likes sandwiches, you know 😉
joey, i’m sure this sauce would be great with prawns! yum.
sandwiches? really? hmmm, something to think about, joanne!
I just made this. I’m in search of a great peanut sauce found at your local thai restaurants. This wasn’t the best or magical peanut sauce. It tasted a lot like peanut butter out of a jar! Seriously. Real delicious authentic thai peanut sauce has very subtle flavors, yet addicting. The spices and sauce in here didn’t even produce any complimenting flavors, it was thick and even water added to it to thin it didn’t help. If you think this was awesome, then you haven’t tried real peanut sauce. I’ll have to keep searching.