Thai peanut dipping sauce

This sauce typically accompanies the Thai chicken satay skewers, but to be honest, you can toss it with noodles, steamed chicken, even as a salad dressing and it would be a memorable meal. It keeps well in the fridge, and the beauty of it is that you can always tweak the measurement of ingredients to suit your palate without taking away the pleasure of its flavour.

Servings: 1

Yield: 500 millilitres

Preparation Time: 5 minutes

Start to finish: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 stalks lemongrass, core only chopped fine

1 red chilli pepper, chopped fine

2 teaspoons turmeric, powder

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons brown sugar

500 millilitres fresh coconut milk

3/4 cup peanuts, ground

1 tablespoon tamarind Sauce

Method:

· Take the inner tender part of the lemongrass and chop it finely.

· Place the garlic, chilli, lemongrass and turmeric in a mortar and pound until pasty.

· Heat the oil in a pan and fry the paste for 2 minutes or so stirring nonstop until the aroma is released.

· Add the coconut milk, brown sugar, salt and tamarind sauce and boil for a few minutes. Pound the peanuts to a fine texture and add to the sauce.

· Boil on medium heat until the sauce thickens.

Notes:

· You can play with the measurements of the ingredients to suit your palate.

· If using for a salad dressing, add a couple tablespoons of vinegar and add a bit more water to dilute it.

· You can substitute the peanuts with 1/3 cup peanut butter but the texture will be smooth.

· If you don’t have a pestle and mortar, just use a food processor.

Per Serving : 2310 Calories; 203g Fat (74.1% calories from fat); 44g Protein; 116g Carbohydrate; 22g Dietary Fiber; 0mg Cholesterol; 1179mg Sodium.