This recipe is inspired by The Indonesian Kitchen, though it has been adapted over the years to suit local ingredients and my family’s palate. It is a far cry from the real stuff, which I had in Indonesia, as most of the required ingredients are not readily avalable.
I prefer a thicker sauce to coat my vegetables. If you pefer a lighter, less calorie-dense dish that still packs a punch, add some coconut water to thin out the sauce or some good quality vegetable stock and add some coarsely chopped peanuts for crunch just before serving.
Indonesian Peanut Sauce
Course: Sauce, Lunch, Dinner, picnic, salad, snackCuisine: IndonesianDifficulty: Easy1
Sauce15
minutes30
minutes132
kcalIndonesian peanut sauce, also known as sate sauce is a key component in a gado gado salad. The sauce is made with peanuts and is sweet, fragrant and sour and is an ideal accompaniment to raw vegetables.
Ingredients
1 tin coconut cream
6 tsp smooth peanut butter – I find the crunchy peanut butter unsettling and prefer to add my own
3 tbs treacle sugar or dark brown sugar – you can use regular sugar but you lose some flavour depth
3 cloves garlic, minced or thinly sliced
1 fresh hot red chili, thinly sliced or a tablespoon of dried chili flakes
Zest of 2 limes or 1 lemon
3 freshly squeezed limes or 1 lemon – if you can get tamarind, rather use it
1 tbsp or more fish sauce or nuoc nam to taste – Ideally, if you can get it, use a tiny knife tip of shrimp paste.
Sugar, vinegar, lime or lemon juice to balance the final dish to taste
Pepper and salt to taste
Finely chopped toasted peanuts for crunch if you wish to add some crunch
Coconut water if you wish to thin out the sauce
Directions
- In a medium saucepan, warm the coconut cream and once it is just simmering, add in all the ingredients apart for the peanut butter, fish sauce, vinegar, salt and pepper. Stir for a minute to help the sugar dissolve.
- Add in the peanut butter and stir slowly to help it dissolve. The resulting sauce should look pale brown and be thin, Keep stirring gently.
- After 5 to 10 minutes, the sauce will suddenly turn darker brown and magically thicken. The exact timing depends on the saucepan used and the heat setting, but the moment is instantly recognizable.
- Take off the heat and taste to balance the sweetness and sourness, adding sugar or vinegar (use limes or lemon if you have more for a fresher taste). It should be a pleasant balance and you should still be able to taste the fruitiness of the limes.
- Once the peanut sauce has cooled a bit, add the fish sauce. This step is important to keep to last as the flavour of the fish sauce gets destroyed with too much heat.
- Add coconut water if you want to thin out the sauce and the chopped peanuts on top to add crunch
