RCP: Peanut Sauce

I love a good peanut sauce and this recipe out of today's paper looks good. I'm going to make it Friday, I think.

Spicy Peanut Sauce by Ann Mah, author or “Kitchen Chinese”

3 garlic cloves - peeled
1 cup cilantro - washed and dried
1 two-inch piece of ginger – peeled and roughly chopped
½ cup smooth peanut butter
2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp sesame oil
2 tsp Sriracha chilli sauce (I am not familiar with this)

Place all ingredients in a bowl or blender and process until smooth. Adjust flavorings as you wish. Very nice poured over salad with shredder chicken or noodles

[Jenise]

Mmmmm...I love peanut sauces too, that looks delectable. And like a good excuse to open some riesling!

I think a good Riesling will be a must with this sauce, it's gotta be spicy - that's a big piece of ginger. A glass of water,too. Have you ever used Sriracha chilli, Jenise - would I know it by another name?

Jon, if you've ever eaten in a Thai or Vietnamese restaurant then you've seen Sriracha: http://www.panix.com/~clay/cookbook/images/sriracha-sauce.jpg

Thanks for the pictures, Jeff. I eat Thai at least once a week here in DC (twice this week, so far) and I've not seen the bottle you pictured. I expect that, where I eat, the sauce is removed from the bottle and placed in small decorated ceramic bowls. I'll ask next time I go - maybe Friday for a Thai trifecta.

Thanks for the pictures, Jeff. I eat Thai at least once a week here in DC (twice this week, so far) and I've not seen the bottle you pictured. I expect that, where I eat, the sauce is removed from the bottle and placed in small decorated ceramic bowls. I'll ask next time I go - maybe Friday for a Thai trifecta.

Splendid. The funny thing about the sauce is that it's absolutely everywhere but it is absolutely not traditional: it was invented in Los Angeles (or thereabouts).

[Jenise]

Splendid. The funny thing about the sauce is that it's absolutely everywhere but it is absolutely not traditional: it was invented in Los Angeles (or thereabouts).

It's on the tables at every Vietnamese restaurant I've ever been too as well, even here in white bread Bellingham.

....it is absolutely not traditional: it was invented in Los Angeles (or thereabouts).

[Jenise]

it is absolutely not traditional: it was invented in Los Angeles (or thereabouts).

By a guy who came here as part of the Vietnamese boat lift of 1975, however, and who based it on a sauce he remembered in Saigon. So it's authentically ethnic even if not what you'd think.

By a guy who came here as part of the Vietnamese boat lift of 1975, however, and who based it on a sauce he remembered in Saigon. So it's authentically ethnic even if not what you'd think.

Not quite: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/20/dining/20united.html

But you're a delightful romantic, my dear!

When we cook dishes that are appropriate for napping with peanut sauce, the preparation leaves little time for sauce making. Though your recipe looks yummy, we usually just add water to Conimex Gado Gado paste.

By a guy who came here as part of the Vietnamese boat lift of 1975, however, and who based it on a sauce he remembered in Saigon. So it's authentically ethnic even if not what you'd think.

Not quite: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/20/dining/20united.html

But you're a delightful romantic, my dear!

Very interesting. I probably passed by that farm where the first chilies came from many times. I was stationed just north of Long Binh, in Cu Chi, which is today a suburban district of Ho Chi Minh City. Of course, that was pre-1975.

I love a good peanut sauce and this recipe out of today's paper looks good. I'm going to make it Friday, I think.

Spicy Peanut Sauce by Ann Mah, author or “Kitchen Chinese”

3 garlic cloves - peeled
1 cup cilantro - washed and dried
1 two-inch piece of ginger – peeled and roughly chopped
½ cup smooth peanut butter
2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp sesame oil
2 tsp Sriracha chilli sauce (I am not familiar with this)

Place all ingredients in a bowl or blender and process until smooth. Adjust flavorings as you wish. Very nice poured over salad with shredder chicken or noodles

This sounds really great, especially since I adore Cilantro. How will you be using it?

peanuts and chiles - what's not to love!

[Jenise]

By a guy who came here as part of the Vietnamese boat lift of 1975, however, and who based it on a sauce he remembered in Saigon. So it's authentically ethnic even if not what you'd think.

Not quite: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/20/dining/20united.html

But you're a delightful romantic, my dear!

Well, so it was just a bit later than 1975 that he came to America, but essentially most of what I thought I remembered is very close to what's described in this article. He was a Vietnam refugee close to the time of the boat lift and it's a sauce whose origins were in Vietnam even if not classic Vietnamese (which is what I meant by 'authentically ethnic even if not what you'd think'.) My details weren't exactly right, but pretty close and definitely not romanticized. Though I love it when you call me "my dear".

"David Tran’s journey from Vietnam to America was epic....From 1975 onward, Mr. Tran made sauces from peppers grown by his older brother on a farm just beyond Long Binh, a village north of what was then Saigon....though he never devised a formal name for his products, Mr. Tran decorated each cap with a rooster, his astrological sign. Production was family focused. Mr. Tran ground the peppers. His father-in-law washed the sauce containers, reusing Gerber baby food jars obtained from American servicemen....By 1979, many of the Tran family’s friends were leaving Vietnam. “I had enough money saved to buy our way out,” he said....Everyone ended up in United Nations refugee camps, before the family finally began to regroup."

Questions....I have not liked many peanut sauces finding them too sweet. This recipe has no added sugar. Does the sweetness in these sauces come from the peanut butter ?
Does it matter if the sesame oil is roasted ?
Sorry for the ignorance, I think I have had only very Americanized Asian food.

Well, so it was just a bit later than 1975 that he came to America, but essentially most of what I thought I remembered is very close to what's described in this article. He was a Vietnam refugee close to the time of the boat lift and it's a sauce whose origins were in Vietnam even if not classic Vietnamese (which is what I meant by 'authentically ethnic even if not what you'd think'.) My details weren't exactly right, but pretty close and definitely not romanticized. Though I love it when you call me "my dear".

Best Beloved,

There's a world of difference between a refugee and a businessman who shrewdly sends his family to four locations so that the company secrets aren't lost. I'm not an expert on the 'boat people' but I wonder how many of them had the resources to just pick themselves up from wherever-they-got-dumped to go follow the chilies?

Jeff

[Jenise]

Darling Correspondent,

Okay, but you inferred that "To limit potential losses, Mr. Tran split the family into four groups" was about the chiles where I believed (and this is consistent with the story that floats around Los Angeles about this sauce's creator) spreading people out to see who could find the best opportunity or opportunities for a better life period. From a small village in Vietnam, it must have been a daunting set of choices.

Long Binh probably wasn't a small village by the time the US got through with it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Binh

And, lest we forget the line prior to the one you quoted, “I had enough money saved to buy our way out.”

Long Binh probably wasn't a small village by the time the US got through with it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Binh

And, lest we forget the line prior to the one you quoted, “I had enough money saved to buy our way out.”

Long Binh was no longer a small village in 1968.

[Jenise]

And, lest we forget the line prior to the one you quoted, “I had enough money saved to buy our way out.”

I don't interpret that meaning he had wealth (or if he did what difference that would make). I've known Mexicans and others who have bought their way into the U.S. and arrived dirt poor nonetheless.

Sriracha is an authentic Thai chile sauce. However, the Huy Fong brand Tong Ot Sriracha, manufactured in the US and ubiquitous in South Asian restaurants here, differs considerably from the traditional Thai version. See this discussion:

http://importfood.com/sriracha_sauce.html

BTW, I recommend importfood.com as an excellent source for Thai and Southeast Asian ingredients.

-Paul W.

I made this sauce to go over soba noodles with stir fry vegetables. I found it a little lacking for that wow factor. It is much improved with the addition of 1 Tbsp rice wine vinegar and 2 Tbsp water or chicken stock (for a slightly thinner consistency). I found the water just fine as the flavors are intense and that small amount did not dilute. I highly recommend it, especially over soba noodles! Yum

2 tsp Sriracha chilli sauce (I am not familiar with this)

Jon, their Sriracha chilli sauce is very good but their Sriracha garlic chilli sauce in the plastic jar is DA BOMB!

Drew