My love affair with Thai food is an old one… But the paste and curries of Thai cuisine particularly peek my interest. If you walk down a market in Thailand, among all the chaos, you will find pockets of fragrances. Follow your nose to the aroma of freshly ground spices and pastes. There are vendors who sell different Thai spice pastes, freshly pound everyday by hand using a stone mortar and pestle. The freshness and hardwork that goes into making a fresh spices paste, or masala as we call it in India, beats nothing! I always try to pick up cooking techniques and firmly believe that there is nothing better than freshly ground spices or pastes.

Here is my humble attempt to make the satay peanut sauce. Now by no means is this an authentic sauce. The original uses fish sauce. I have tried to make a vegetarian/vegan version of it. This sauce is versatile as it can be used as a marinade for meats, as a dipping sauce or as a salad dressing. I have used it as all three and it has never disappointed!!

What you will need:

How to make it:

• Dry roast the peanuts until they begins to brown. You can leave the husk on or off. I leave them on for added fibre in my food 🙂 Let the peanuts cool down completely. 
• In a mixer or food processor, add soy sauce, vinegar, coconut milk, peeled whole bulb of garlic, curry powder, turmeric powder, deseeded habanero, salt and palm sugar. Add the peanuts next.
• Blend into a course paste. Add a juice of a lime, and give it one last pulse. 
• If you are using the paste to marinate meat, your marinade is ready. However, if you plan to use the sauce for dipping or as a salad dressing, you need to cook it. The cooking is necessary to take out the raw garlic flavor from the sauce. 
• Pour the sauce in a saucepan and bring the sauce to a boil, stirring occasionally. Let the sauce cool completely. Store it in a clean, dry container for upto 2 weeks in the refrigerator. 
• Checkout my other recipes for salad and satay using this delicious sauce.