Spicy Peanut Sauce

A Mongolian grill recently opened in town and it's become the latest hotspot.  It's a welcome break from meat and potatoes.  It's also the closest we can get to Thai food.  I've only been to HuHot once, and while it was good, I don't foresee myself really going back there too often.  Much like sandwich places that never change the gloves after touching roast beef and salami (Subway), this place throws everything on the same grill.  They clean it off between customers, but it still bothers me a little.   Another reason I may not return anytime soon, is that I can master stir fry myself.  It's not that hard or expensive.

I wasn't sure, though, if I could master their spicy peanut sauce.  But I sure wanted to try.  So tonight, I looked up an easy Thai spicy peanut sauce recipe to try out for myself, before cooking it for anyone else.  Usually, I have a good sense if I make something that it will come out at least decent.  I wasn't so sure with this.

Tonight was the perfect night, since  I had run out of stuff to make sandwiches-- my default on nights when I'm alone.  But I always have frozen vegetables and lots of pasta, just in case.  I could work with that.  I steamed frozen broccoli and sugar snap peas, and boiled some organic whole wheat angel hair pasta.  In the meantime, I combined a few ingredients that I happened to have on hand to make the peanut sauce:

-- 1/4 cup of peanut butter (or 4 tablespoons)
-- 1/4 cup of water
-- 2 tablespoons of soy sauce
-- 2 tablespoons of lime juice
-- sriracha (to taste)

Sriracha is a paste of chili peppers, distilled vinegar, garlic, salt and sugar. It's named after a province in Thailand, where it was first made.   If you like hot, spicy foods, this is a must!  And luckily, you can find this at any grocery store.  I may have gone a little overboard on it with my peanut sauce, but I like the kick!

The original recipe calls for two tablespoons of rice vinegar, which I didn't have.  But two tablespoons shouldn't really make a difference either way, so I didn't bother with it.  I figured sriracha already had vinegar in it, so that technically counts.  (I love my logic.)

Combine all those ingredients in a small sauce pan on the stove over low heat.  It will first become very watery, but don't worry.  It will eventually harden after a few minutes.  I continually added sriracha to the sauce as I cooked it, to make it spicier.

After about ten minutes, three songs on my iPod, and several text messages to my mother-- who was also cooking-- it was done.  After draining the pasta, I returned the noodles back to the large pot and tossed them with vegetables and peanut sauce.

Let's just say, I can now open up a restaurant and put HuHot to shame. I actually think it was better than any restaurant that serves peanut sauce-- even authentic Asian ones.  It was fantastic!!  Now, I know I say that about all the things I cook, but that's because I only post my successful recipes!  (With the exception of my hummus.  Still a failure.)  If it wasn't good, why would I want to share it?  Trust me on this one, though.

I have been cooking now and experimenting with recipes for two years (I didn't cook in Los Angeles or Washington, D.C.), and I surprise myself every time.   I'm not only surprised my food is edible, but that other people actually like it.  I never really considered myself to be a good cook, but the more I do it, the better I get.  And the happier I feel that I'm successful at it.