Thai peanut sauce: do you use peanut butter or ground peanuts? Tommy Tang basically spits

M

marilynfl

Moderator
on the idea that anyone would use peanut butter. He INSISTS that you must use ground peanuts and any deviation will result in floggings with dry ramen noodles (my translation).

So, being a Tommy Tang wimp, I made it with ground peanuts. And while it's okay, I had to use a LOT more coconut milk and twice the amount of ground peanuts (using a coffee grinder) to offset the fishiness from the fish sauce. And even though I buzzed it with a stick blender, it still doesn't have the smoothness I've experienced using plain old peanut butter.

Now, since I live in a culinary wasteland and authentic Thai food is pretty rare, I may have no clue what I'm talking about.

What's your take on it??

PS: I'm using the book at the link. You can see the peanut sauce recipe on Page 18 or search for "peanut sauce". It's with the Chicken Satay recipe.

http://www.amazon.com/Tommy-Tangs-Modern-Thai-Cuisine/dp/0385419430#reader_0385419430

 
I watched an Asian-American co-worker make peanut sauce,

I was really surprised... She used commercial peanut butter, hoisin sauce and water...with a couple drops of sesame oil. I was blown away... I prefer using all natural peanut butter myself, but that's just me. I think one difference is going to be sweetness...the commercial peanut butter has a lot of sugar in it.

 
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