Food Friday: Spicy Peanut Sauce, Again!

Spicy Peanut Salad Dressing (or dipping sauce)

1/4 cup peanut butter

2 cloves garlic

2 Tablespoons rice vinegar

2 Tablespoons sugar

2 Tablespoons soy sauce 

2 Tablespoons water

2 teaspoons fresh ginger paste (or just finely minced ginger)

1 heaping teaspoon sambal oelek 

Blend very well until a nice smooth sauce. If it is too thick to be a salad dressing, add water, one Tablespoon at a time until the texture is right.

Yields:  about one cup 

This is the recipe I started with but I more than tripled it and blended in the Vitamix since the peanut butter was extra crunchy.  I did not have any fresh garlic so I used granulated garlic at the rate of 1 teaspoon granulated garlic for every clove of garlic mentioned in the recipe.  I washed about 2 1/2 inches of fresh ginger which I DID have, chopped it into four pieces and put it into the blender skin and all.  This stuff is delicious.  There was a little left over.  I took it home and stirred it into some steamed cauliflower the next day. Yummy!  Really yummy.

Vietnamese Salad Roll Wrappers.

Along with the peanut sauce I made some "Vietnamese Salad Rolls" with rice paper I purchased at the Can Tho Market which is within easy walking distance.  I filled the spring rolls with julienned carrots, shredded lettuce, red bell pepper sticks, and, in some, roasted tofu sticks.  

Dipped in the peanut sauce the rolls were really good!

If you have never used these to make fresh spring rolls, don't be scared!  They are very easy to use.  Get out a round cake pan and put about half an inch or more of warm water in the pan.  One at a time, drop in the wrapper and submerge it in the water, making sure all of it submerges.  Remove to a clean cutting board and place a SMALL QUANTITY of your vegetable shreds on the lower third of the wrapper closest to you.  Fold the left and right sides into the middle over the vegetables then roll up like a burrito.  Place in a container that you can cover, and when filled, store in the refrigerator.  I have found that if these get really cold they are wonderful and easy to dip in the sauce.  

If you fill them too full, or try to eat them before refrigeration, my experience is that they fall apart.  You can still eat them but...not as tidily.

This is the second item we brought to the President's potluck Family Home Evening along with the second batch of black bean soup.

***The end of the story on the first iteration of black bean soup is that I have been eating it all week.  It is not inedible exactly, but not fun to eat.  The food is healthy and good for you so I have not thrown it out.  I will be glad when it is finished, though.