Satay sauce

It is much better to use salt-free peanut butter to prepare your own satay sauce.

SheWhoMustbeFed provides the household with home made nut butters - cashew and peanut being the staples with the occasional foray into macadamia. To make nut butter, fresh nuts are simply lightly roasted and then they are introduced to The Champion. The Champion is what you get when you cross a bench mounted grinder with a kitchen tool. Its easy to imagine The Champion being the result of Tim Taylor from the TV show Home Improvement being asked to design a new food processor.

In the absence of your own home made peanut butter, salt free peanut butter can be generally found in health food stores, if you can find one that hasn't been overrun with body building supplements that is!

Needing to have (suggested measurements are just that...suggestions. You have to fiddle a bit to get the right consistency)....

• 3/4 cup of lightly roasted peanuts. Crush in a mortar and pestle and reserve
• 1/2 cup of peanut butter
• 1/2 cup of coconut cream
• 1 tablespoon of tamari
• A few thin slices of onion, chopped
• 1 clove of garlic, crushed
• 1 hot chilli
• 1/2 teaspoon of ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons of peanut oil (or coconut oil) - for frying the onion and garlic
• 1 teaspoon of sesame oil - for flavouring
• Water

To do...

• Boil the kettle, and dissolve the peanut butter in a cup of water. It doesn't have to completely dissolve but it helps to get it as pre-dissolved as possible
• Meanwhile, in a small pan over a low flame...
• Lightly sauté the onion, garlic and cumin. If these at all burn, discard and start again as they really need to be very lightly cooked
• Add the dissolved peanut butter, tamari, and the whole chilli (the chilli is meant to add a little heat, and then be fished out before serving). Add up to an extra cup of water to help thin the mixture
• Simmer lightly for a few minutes, do not allow to boil. Keep an eye on the sauce and stir regularly as it will tend to stick to the pan easily
• Remove the chilli. Add the coconut cream and the sesame oil. This will take the heat off the sauce so bring it back to a simmer.
• As soon as it simmers again, add the reserved crushed peanuts and serve