Ok, full disclosure … I love this Peanut Coconut Sauce so much that I could eat it by itself with a spoon! But I reserve that guilty pleasure to licking the spoon before it hits the dishwasher. Do I lick the bowl too? um .. maybe.
Today I will show you how we recently had it as a dipping sauce for grilled shrimp and in a noodle and stir fried vegetable dish.
Ingredients for the Sauce:
1/2 cup peanut butter *
165 ml coconut milk, which is a small can = 5.6 oz, just under 3/4 cup **
1 tablespoon soy sauce (add more at the end if you’d like it saltier)
2 tablespoons wine vinegar, red or white
3/4 teaspoon sugar (or less)
1 inch piece of ginger, minced
1 large clove of garlic, minced
1 scotch bell pepper, minced (we like things spicy, but you can adjust the amount you use)
1 tablespoon finely chopped cilantro (aka coriander)
Water to thin, if required
* I used natural crunchy style peanut butter that is just ground peanuts with no sugar added, so if you don’t have this kind, you might want to adjust the sugar in the recipe to your preference.
** without realizing it we had bought the reduced fat version of coconut milk, so I checked the ingredients, and it is really just normal coconut milk mixed with water! The recipe worked just fine with it too.
Put everything into a saucepan over medium heat. Lightly simmer for 5 minutes. That’s it!
Serve as is, alongside grilled shrimp (we leave the shells on while cooking to retain moisture), or cooked pork or chicken.
OR
Make this delicious Asian style noodle and stir-fried vegetable dish!
Ingredients for the Noodle dish:
Noodles to serve 4. We used dried egg noodles purchased at a Chinese Market, but you can use fresh noodles and even thin spaghetti works well.
1/2 cup (or more to your liking) of the Spicy Peanut Coconut Sauce
3 tablespoons peanut oil, divided
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil (optional but good)
Vegetables of your choice, chopped into smallish bite sized pieces. We used baby bok choy, carrot, mushrooms, onion, celery and green pepper.
Garnish:
A few sprigs fresh cilantro
Roughly ground peanuts
Chopped green onion
Wedges of lemon
The noodles and the vegetables are cooked separately and then mixed when served, so try to do the two parts simultaneously.
For the noodles: (if using dry egg noodles, otherwise cook as package instructs and then season as described.)
Boil water and cook noodles for no more than 4 minutes. Careful you don’t overcook them as they cook very quickly. I recommend checking them after 3 minutes. Drain. Return (empty) pot to heat and add 1 1/2 tablespoons peanut oil. Add noodles to pot and toss in oil. Add soy sauce and sesame oil. Keep warm on very low heat until ready to serve.
For the vegetables:
Heat a wok over medium heat and then add about 1 1/2 tablespoon peanut oil (remember: hot pan, cool oil … food won’t stick). Begin frying your ‘harder’ vegetables first. In my example that included the onion and carrot. After about 2 minutes, add you next ‘medium hard’ vegetables. In my case, celery, mushrooms and peppers. At the end add the ‘soft’ vegetables. For me, that was the bok choy. Toss until wilted. Add the peanut sauce and heat through.
Serve the vegetables over the noodles, topped with the garnishes.
Hope you try my recipes! Please be assured that what I share here with you have all been tried and tested many times in our own kitchen.
And so it’s Friday! Cheers to that fact.
xo loulou
