This Dutch-Indian Peanut Sauce will make you celebrate anything

A blogaverary, that Summer has started, just a nice Friday lunch barbecue, Independence or a long weekend; whatever you feel like celebrating, serve this Dutch-Indian Peanut Sauce. Everybody loves it.

I have proof and people who can attest. 

Pean>>

Is it really 3 years ago that I hit “publish” for the first time on a blog post written in English? And 11 years ago that I did the exact same thing (but different recipe) for my first blog post ever? Yes, 3 and 11 years and a few days.

This year, the day – June 4th – went by unnoticed. I wasn’t back into blogging yet and I kinda knew that my blog anniversary was coming up. So I didn’t properly celebrate it and it feels a bit odd to do that today, almost a month later.

How about celebrating that it’s Saturday and here in the US we have a long 4th of July weekend ahead?  Even I do, as I have a new 2 days a week office job on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Ah, well, I’m a contractor so probably work on Wednesday and Friday instead. Like I went to the office yesterday too, just for the lunch barbecue at the shared outdoor kitchen of the office building. Just an informal, American-style party?

Huh, American style?
Yeah, where everyone brings something to drink or eat to share? You know, you Americans be so stingy and have our guests to bring their own food and drinks because it’s much cheaper?

Just kidding!

I know, I know. In English this type of party is often called ‘Dutch party’ as we Dutch are named cheap and ferocious. But in our defense, it’s very rare for us to throw a party and ask your guest to bring the food and drinks.
Occasionally, when we throw a party for someone else, like as a surprise, then we can do it and ask guests to bring food and drinks to make organization a bit easier. And we call it an ‘American party’, as that’s how we see you guys do it.

 

Dutch-Indian peanut sauce
Anyhow, on any party – Dutch, American or mixed – this Dutch-Indian peanut sauce will be the biggest hit. You can serve it over grilled meat or veggie skewers, with sauteed/fried plantains, over a Dutch classic aka our interpretation of fried rice called ‘nasi’*.
But the best way to eat it, is to scoop it up with baguette.

You can ask my colleagues to confirm! 😉

* Same story how curry became the British national pride.

Dutch-Indian peanut sauce

For our Dutch-Indian peanut sauce we use kecap manis, an thick, sweet (manis) Indonesian soy sauce (kecap). You can replace it with a thick Chinese soy sauce (not Japanese, as these in general are thinner and saltier) and some sweetener like honey. Sambal oelek is an Indonesian spicy red pepper paste, and can be replaced by any other spice sauce. But as always with replacements; taste will differ, so test and taste how you like it.

I use:
½ cup peanut butter
3/4 – 1 cup milk
1 teaspoon sambal oelek
1-2 tablespoons kecap manis
1 teaspoon coriander
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon powdered ginger
1 tablespoon ketchup
salt + pepper

I do:
Melt peanut butter in the milk on medium heat, while stirring every now and then.The mixture should be thick enough to scoop it up with some bread.
The longer you cook this peanut sauce, the thicker it will become. Just add some more milk if it becomes to thick. You will notice, don’t worry.

Stir in other ingredients. The peanut flavor should be still there, but not too overpowering. The kecap, sambal and spices have to take over and balance that heavily peanut taste out, while the ketchup boost this Dutch-Indian style peanut sauce with some acidity. Taste and adjust to your liking.

Tip: If you use unsweetened peanut butter without salt, you’re good to go with this recipe. With other peanut butters it’s good to taste as you go, and spice up things a bit more to balance the sugar in the peanut butter. But that’s to your taste too, of course.

Serve warm. Over chicken, pork or beef skewers. Over skewered and grilled mushrooms. With our Dutch pride ‘nasi goreng’. Scoop it up with a baguette. But whatever you do, do serve it warm.

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