Little did I know how simple it was to make the goodness. With the invention of electric pressure cooker, AKA Instant Pot, making sticky rice amounts to a 2-minute job.
Peanut sauce, on the other hand, is a 5-minute stove-top job. While this may not be a fully traditional recipe, it produces an outstanding result, reliably.
Template for making peanut sauce
- Sauté the base: finely chopped onion, minced ginger, minced garlic - any subset will do. Salt and pepper to speed up the cooking.
- Add 2 cups of liquid: coconut milk, chicken stock, bean-cooking liquid, water - any of those will do
- Optionally add a bit of miso to up the umami factor
- Optionally, if you are not using coconut milk, add a bit of coconut oil.
- Add two heaping soup spoons of smooth unsalted peanut butter. If you use the salted variety, you'll need to be more careful about controlling saltiness
- Add some heat and flavor: 1 TBS of thai curry paste, any kind, 1/2 TBS harissa, sriracha or another hot sauce
- Add 1 TBS soy sauce, 1 TBS fish sauce
- Optionally add 1 TBS sesame oil
- Bring to boil while stirring over medium to medium high heat.
- If it is too thick, add more liquid. If it is too thin, add a bit more of peanut sauce.
- Taste, adjust the seasoning if you wish.
- Eat, and try to control yourself.
Our usual peanut sauce
- Sauté onion and garlic, sometimes ginger with salt and pepper
- 2 cups of kelp water or regular water or bean liquid, whatever we have
- A small dollop of miso
- 2 heaping soup spoons of smooth unsalted peanut sauce
- Curry paste (or harissa and sriracha when we are out of curry paste)
- Soy sauce and sesame oil
