:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/20240503-SEA-PeanutSauce-MelatiCitrawireja-10-1a884405c52f48208ea199e9fd2ed98d.jpg?w=1200&resize=1200,0&ssl=1 "Indonesian Peanut Sauce Recipe")
Why It Works
- Fragrant makrut lime leaves, tangy tamarind, and smoky terasi (shrimp paste) give the peanut sauce a particular style.
- Steeping the makrut lime leaves throughout the tamarind paste and water infuses the peanut sauce with a shiny citrus observe.
Oh, peanut sauce, how do I like thee? Let me rely the strategies.
In Indonesia, peanut sauce is a staple served alongside many dishes, along with satay, gado-gado, and meat- or fish-stuffed greens often known as siomay. Traditionally, cooks put collectively peanut sauce by pounding roasted or fried peanuts to a paste using a mortar and pestle. The condiment has a rich nuttiness and can get its daring style from a combination of shallots, garlic, pink chiles, and palm sugar, whereas a contact of vinegar, lime juice, or tamarind paste lends it an acidic kick. The sauce is ubiquitous all by way of the nation, the place it goes by sambal kacang, saus kacang, or bumbu kacang, counting on the world.
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Though these all focus on with peanut sauce, they’re going to differ of their preparations. Some might title for fried garlic and chiles, whereas others might incorporate fragrant makrut lime leaves or lemongrass, savory shrimp paste, and kecap manis (a sweet soy sauce), amongst many alternative substances. All through Indonesia, you’ll uncover sauces that are as thick as gravy and others as skinny as heavy cream. No matter their variations, each is as vital to Indonesian delicacies as a result of the others. Satay may be incomplete with out the thick mannequin sauce it’s served with for dipping, and kroket (meat-filled potato croquettes) is usually a lot a lot much less pleasurable with out the fiery heat of the variation often known as sambal kacang. Karedok, a salad from West Java identical to gado-gado, will get its further brightness from a peanut sauce infused with peppery, herbaceous sand ginger.
It’s unclear when Indonesians first began preparing peanut sauce, nevertheless the arrival of the peanut in Indonesia may be traced once more to 1690, when Spanish and Portuguese colonists launched the legume to Asia. In accordance with culinary historian Andrew F. Smith and author of Peanuts: The Illustrious Historic previous of the Goober Peapeanuts had made their means all through India, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, and China by the 18th century. This may occasionally more and more make clear why peanuts and peanut sauce are moreover present in numerous Southeast Asian cuisines.
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In Thailand, as an example, peanut sauce is steadily eaten with its mannequin of satay. Thai peanut sauce just about always incorporates pink curry paste, which tints it pink and infuses it with aromatic galangal, lemongrass, cilantro roots, and makrut lime leaves. And that peanut sauce you dip your Vietnamese rice paper rolls in? Its salty-sweet style comes from a mixture of fish sauce, hoisin sauce, and granulated sugar. In Singapore, hawkers pour chile-infused peanut sauce over satay bee hoon, rice vermicelli noodles with bean sprouts, water spinach, and cuttlefish.
The peanut sauce recipe beneath is a easier deal with my Indonesian Chinese language language mother’s, who likes to toast raw, skin-on peanuts in an enormous wok until golden, then grind them—each by hand with a mortar and pestle or throughout the bowl of a meals processor—until the nuts have the consistency of moist sand. It’s a barely thicker mannequin that’s biggest eaten with gado gado, satay, and ketropak, a rice noodle dish with greens and tofu.
Though I typically go to comparable lengths, I typically choose the higher, further helpful route by way of the usage of store-bought crunchy peanut butter, albeit the pure kind that comes with solely peanuts. Nonetheless, I wish to suggest attempting this with whole peanuts: Not solely are whole peanuts further economical to purchase, they’re moreover further flavorful when freshly flooring. As I as quickly as wrote for Epicuriouspeanuts, like spices, are inclined to stale and go rancid shortly as quickly as flooring, so using whole will sometimes produce a further fragrant peanut sauce. Nonetheless there is no such thing as a correct or fallacious, and do you have to need peanut sauce in a rush, do as I do and go for the peanut butter. It’s larger than the selection—which is not any peanut sauce the least bit.
Indonesian Peanut Sauce Recipe
Cook dinner dinner Mode
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1 heaping cup roasted peanuts (about 5 ounces; 140g), see notes
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2 small Asian shallots (2 ounces; 57g), roughly chopped
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1 medium clove garlic (5g), crushed
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2 medium-hot, finger-length pink chiles like Fresno, cayenne, or serrano (2 ounces; 57g), stemmed, seeded, and chopped (see notes)
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5 rooster’s eye chiles or Thai chiles (1 ounce; 28g), stemmed
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3 tablespoons (36g) shaved palm sugar (ideally gula merah); see notes
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1/2 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt; for desk salt, use half as rather a lot by amount
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1/2 teaspoon shrimp paste
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2 latest makrut lime leaves
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1 tablespoon (20g) “moist” tamarind pulpor 1 tablespoon latest lime juice, ideally key lime (see notes)
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If using roasted peanuts, course of in a high-speed blender or meals processor until a paste the texture of moist sand sorts, 3 to 4 minutes. (Will most likely be coarser than peanut butter; you may get about 1 cup. If using a mortar and pestle, grind roasted) Change peanut paste to a small bowl and put apart.
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Add shallots, garlic, pink chiles, rooster’s eye chiles, palm sugar, salt, and shrimp paste (if using) to the now empty meals processor or blender and pulse, stopping to scrape down the edges of the bowl as needed with a flexible spatula, until the mix resembles cooked oatmeal, 30 seconds to 1 minute. If paste is simply too thick and by no means turning throughout the meals processor, add water, 1 teaspoon at a time, until it loosens to your required consistency.
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In a small saucepan, carry lime leaves, tamarind, and 1 cup (240 ml) water to a fragile boil over medium heat. Simmer, using a spoon or spatula to interrupt up the tamarind pulp as rather a lot as doable and infuse the flavors, about 5 minutes. Take away the lime leaves and remaining tamarind solids.
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Stir in flooring peanuts and chile paste, and put together dinner over medium heat. When the mix begins effervescent, in the reduction of heat to medium-low and simmer until thick and creamy, stirring sometimes to cease sauce from sticking to bottom of the pot, 4 to 6 minutes In case you like a looser sauce, add water 1 tablespoon at a time until you attain your required consistency. Modify seasoning to fashion. Serve.
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Explicit Instruments
Meals processor, blender, or mortar and pestle
Notes
The texture and style of peanut butter cannot consider to that of whole peanuts, nevertheless do you have to’d favor the consolation of peanut butter, use 2/3 cup pure unsalted crunchy peanut butter (6 ounces; 170g). Try to seek for the freshly flooring peanut butter in grocery outlets, as a result of it’s the closest in fashion and texture to freshly flooring peanuts. Use creamy if that’s what you like.
Almonds or cashews may be substituted for peanuts.
1 tablespoon (1/2 ounce; 15g) sambal oelek may be substituted for 2 pink chiles.
Indonesian palm sugar, usually known as gula merah, gula Jawa or gula aren, is way much less processed than the additional ubiquitous pale yellow mannequin utilized in Thai cooking. Gula Malacca from Malaysia is comparable. Gula merah may be found at Asian grocery outlets, significantly these specializing in Southeast Asian substances. Coconut sugar or darkish brown sugar may be substituted for palm sugar.
Shrimp paste, makrut lime leaves and kecap manis are typically obtainable at Asian grocery outlets, significantly these specializing in Southeast Asian substances.
Tamarind focus provided in jars and tubs should not be my first choice on account of they differ in top quality. You will most likely must make use of two to some events the amount listed in my recipe. Merely fashion as you go.
The recipe can merely be doubled if desired.
To make peanut sauce with a mortar and pestle: Grind roasted, unsalted peanuts until they’ve the texture of coarse sand. Change peanut paste to a small bowl and put apart. Using the now empty mortar and pestle, pound shallots, garlic, pink chiles, rooster’s eye chiles, palm sugar, salt, and shrimp paste (if using) until the mix is thick like oatmeal. Proceed with step 3.
Make-Ahead and Storage
Retailer peanut sauce in an airtight container throughout the fridge for as a lot as 5 days. To reheat, warmth peanut sauce in a saucepan set on medium-low heat. Add water, one tablespoon at a time, to loosen to desired consistency.