thai peanut sauce

an absolutely diverse & lovely sauce!  use as a dipping sauce for spring rolls, as a topping over steamed veggies, in stir-fry's, as a sauce for wide rice noodles, with scrambled eggs, whatever! not a fan of peanut, try it with almond butter.  not exactly authentic, but not bad either!

5 Tbl water

4 Tbl peanut butter

1 Tbl rice vinegar

2 tsp honey

2 tsp shoyu (or tamari)

2 cloves garlic -mince

1/2 tsp cumin powder*

1/8 tsp cayenne or 1 tsp red curry paste

1 Tbl cilantro -diced (optional)

place all ingredients into a bowl, whisk and let sit 5-10 minutes.  whisk again, taste & adjust seasoning if needed.  enjoy!

*place whole cumin seeds in a dry saute pan.  turn heat to medium and roast.  every 10-20 seconds, give the pan a shake to turn the seeds.  when a cumin aroma begins to rise and the seeds have browned a bit remove from heat and transfer to a bowl to stop the roasting process.  there are a few methods to crushing the seeds to powder:

1.  place in a clean spice blender and give em a whirl

2.  crush w/ a mortar & pestle

3.  put seeds in a metal bowl & use the back of a spoon to crush them by rolling the back side over the seeds w/ a bit of pressure (not the easiest method, but it works).