My obsession with peanut sauce started at a young age.Sesame noodles—served either hot or cold—were one of the dinners I requested my mom make often. When we would go out for Thai food, I quickly learned to ask for a side of peanut sauce with everything I ordered. Sometimes I wouldn't even bother putting it on anything, I'd just eat it with a spoon. To my young, sensitive palette, any sauce with peanut butter in it was even more magic than ketchup: it made me want to eat everything it touched.
When I was old enough to use the blender unsupervised (I think I was seven?), my mom would let me make the sauce for sesame noodle night. I refused to follow a recipe (some things never change), so making that sauce could easily take me half an hour as I tinkered with ratios of ingredients. I'd spoon peanut butter, sesame oil, tamari, rice wine vinegar, honey, and some water into the jar of my mom's oldWarringand give it a whirl. Then I'd stop, taste, tinker, and whirl again. Sometimes I made so many adjustments that the blender jar was full by the time I got it right.
I never thought to write my childhood-favorite formula for peanut sauce down when I was a kid—I just re-created it from feel every time I made it. Even when the craving hits in my adult life, I make it for myself blindly, fussing with ingredients until it tastes right (now I often add garlic and slices of fresh ginger to the mix). But the other day I decided it was time to write my childhood version down, so I forced myself to measure every little splash until it tasted exactly how I remembered seven-year-old me loving it best: super smooth, super creamy, super peanut-forward, a little tart, a little sweet, and just salty enough. And perhaps most importantly: irresistible enough to make much-maligned broccoli acceptable.
If your kids love peanut butter as much as I did (and assuming there are no nut allergies in the house), I hope you'll start making my childhood-favorite peanut sauce for (and with!) them. Make a big batch—it keeps for a couple weeks in the fridge—and serve it as a dipping sauce for sliced cucumbers or carrots or, well, any raw or steamed vegetable, really. You can also toss hot pasta in it, of course; let the noodles cool and you have a great lunch to pack for tomorrow. Dip chicken (skewers, slices, meatballs, whatever) or shrimp into the sauce, or makesummer rolls和服务于酱。无论你服务it, don't be ashamed to eat a few spoonfuls yourself right after you make it—little me is right there with you.
