If you've been to the Netherlands you may have seen people eating their chips with peanut sauce, aka satay/saté sauce. This is a bit of a mongrel compared to genuine Indonesian/Malaysian satay sauces, but it's good in its own right and very easy to make. It's somewhere between a condiment and a side, a bit like apple sauce with roast pork.
I serve it with medallions of pork loin, but it also works well with mixed barely-boiled/blanched veggies ("gado-gado" would be the Indonesian name), or of course with chips, as long as they're crispy. If your DC like peanuts and slightly spicy food they will love this.
Ingredients for 4 people:
- 250g of smooth peanut butter
- 2 cloves of garlic, grated or crushed
- 10 ml soy sauce
- 20 ml tomato ketchup
- 1 teaspoon powdered ginger
- 1 teaspoon hot sauce (sriracha, tabasco, etc)
- 1 teaspoon liquid honey
- Half a chicken Oxo cube
- 50 ml milk
- 100 ml water
All of the quantities can be adjusted, and most of the seasoning ingredients are optional — obviously you need some of them, but don't feel you can't make it if you're missing one or two. If you leave out the Oxo cube (or use an artificially flavoured chicken stock powder — I accidentally bought that once from a Chinese products shop and it was fine) then it's vegetarian, and if you replace the milk with water or another liquid then it's vegan.
Method:
- Put everything except the peanut butter and the water in a bowl and stir to mix thoroughly.
- Add the peanut butter and stir/mash with a wooden spoon until you have a homogenous sloppy lump. This will need a small amount of effort.
- Add water gradually while stirring until you have the consistency of thick custard.
- Microwave on full power for 2 minutes (with a cover on, or you will be cleaning the microwave for some time).
- Remove from microwave. There will be a bit of a crust on top, a bit like hot chocolate that has sat for a bit. Stir to mix the crust in, adding a little bit more water if needed.
- Microwave for another 30 seconds or so, stir and serve.