Peanut Sauce Thai-style (Nam jim satay)

Ingredients:

4 ounces of roasted (unsalted) peanuts
3-4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 ounce chopped onion
1-2 tablespoon red or massaman curry paste
1 teaspoon fish sauce
8 tablespoons coconut milk
4-6 teaspoons lime juice (to taste).
2-3 teaspoons palm sugar.

First grind or crush the peanuts to a fairly fine powder. Then combine them with the remaining ingredients (except the lime juice), to form a smooth sauce. If the sauce is too thick, you can thin it with a little chicken stock. Now add the lime juice, tasting as you progress to check the balance of flavors is correct.

Note use red curry paste with beef or pork satay, massaman (as above) with chicken. If you are doing shrimp satay then use half the quantity of massaman paste.

A fine accompaniment to any Thai dish served with peanut sauce is "A jad", an authentic Thai cucumber sauce.

A Jad

4 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
2-3 tablespoons cucumber, very coarsely chopped or sliced
2 shallots chopped
3-4 Thai chile peppers, thinly sliced.

Combine the ingredients, and leave to stand overnight.