Satisfying the Peanut Craving

Posted by Michael on Jul 4, 2011 in Recipes | 0 comments

I don’t really care for peanut butter on its own but I’m definitely a fan of peanut flavour in savoury dishes, especially Asian-inspired ones.

China and Thailand make especially good use of peanuts in many ways. Try adding toasted, salted peanuts to your next stir-fry – the crunch and flavour can make all the difference to a quick mid-week meal.

Peanut sauce is just magic on noodles and a simplified version can go together in a couple of minutes – perfect again for a quick but interesting mid-week meal.  I was inspired to slap one together today after Alexandra asked for a peanut butter and jam sandwich for lunch.  We have a 2 kg tub of peanut butter on hand after a visit from Alexandra’s grandparents a couple of weeks ago – that’s right, 4.4 lbs of peanut butter – so I’ll have to find more ways to get through it.

There are loads of recipes for peanut sauce online, from very authentic ones to fast-easy versions, but the basic idea is to thin the peanut butter with a bit of water and bump up the flavour with such items as garlic, soy sauce or fish sauce and an acid such as vinegar or lime juice.  I also like to spice it up with chili, usually in the form of a big squirt of sriracha sauce which blends smoothly with the peanut butter.

A note on your noodle: Cooking noodles for an Asian dish has a couple of differences over cooking noodles for Italian dishes.  First, don’t season the water with as much salt for Asian noodles as you would for an Italian pasta.  Asian sauces, peanut sauce included, tend to be more salty than Italian sauces so watch the salt content in your overall dish.  Secondly, you’ll want to cook your pasta a bit longer for an Asian noodle dish than you would for an Italian pasta.  Italians like that al dente bite to the pasta, while Asian noodles tend to be softer as they’re generally made with softer wheats.  So feel free to use regular pasta for a dish like this, but keep those points in mind.

I’m a person that doesn’t like to have leftovers in the fridge so my recipe makes a very small batch of peanut sauce. Have at ‘er and make this as a side dish for some grilled meat or something of that nature. Use your noodle.

Peanut Noodles

A good soup-spoon sized dollop of smooth peanut butter

1 tablespoon or so water

1 teaspoon seasoned rice vinegar

1/2 teaspoon or so soy sauce

1 small garlic clove, finely minced

sriracha or other hot sauce to taste

Pasta for one. Linguine is a good choice

Heat a large pot of water over high heat until boiling.  Add a tablespoon or so of salt and then the noodles.  Cook until tender, about 10 minutes.  Meanwhile in a small mixing bowl, whisk together the rest of the ingredients until smooth. Drain the pasta well and return them to the pot.  Add the peanut sauce and place the pot back on the heat.  Stir the noodles constantly for a minute or so, so the noodles soak up any excess moisture. This will also tame the bite of the garlic.  Serve immediately.  Nice with other fresh vegetables such as chopped nappa cabbage, carrots or bean sprouts.