Thai Satay Peanut Sauce (Made from Scratch with Peanuts)

5 from 7 votes

An incredibly flavorful Thai satay peanut sauce made from scratch by roasting and crushing our own peanuts and cooking down shallots and spices.

Prep Time15

Cook Time20

Total Time35

Course: Condiments, Dip, Sauce

Cuisine: Thai

Servings: 3 cups

Calories: 499kcal

Author: Joyce Lee

Ingredients

2 teaspoon tamarind pulp (seeds and pulp removed. If you are using tamarind paste from a jar, use 3 tablespoons)
3-4 boiling water

If you bought peanuts without the skin, place them in a frying pan over medium-low heat and give them a quick roast until they are toasty and brown. Remember to shake the pan every few minutes to them moving so that they don't burn. They take about 10 minutes.
If you bought shelled peanuts, or peanuts with the skin on, shell them and toast them in a frying pan over medium-low heat for about 10 minutes. Shake the pan every few minutes to prevent them from burning. This takes about 10 minutes.
Once the peanuts have finished roasting, let it cool. The skins should be cracked and the peanuts would have shrunk slightly which makes it easier to remove the skins by rubbing them between your palms or fingers.
Once the peanuts have finished roasting, let them cool a bit.
Then in a mortar and pestle crush the peanuts up finely.
If you don’t have a mortar and pestle, you can pulse it in a food processor (pulse a few times until peanuts are in smaller pieces, do not blend it because that will make peanut butter.)
Alternatively, you can also hand chop it finely.
Reserve 1-2 tablespoons of the finely crushed peanuts as a topping

Soak 2 teaspoon tamarind pulp in a 3-4 tablespoons of boiling water for 15 to 30 minutes minutes and then strain out the seeds and skins.
Save the tamarind water for the sauce, there should be about 3 tablespoons.
If you are using tamarind paste from a jar, you can skip this step.

Chop up the galangal, garlic, lemongrass and shallots and put them into a food processor and blitz it to it is almost a paste.
If you don’t have a food processor you can chop them by hand but chop them up finely. The finer the chop the less chunks in the sauce.
In a pan, add some oil onto medium heat and brown the lemongrass, shallot, garlic galangal mixture.
Add in the chopped birds eye chili and continue to cook it in the pan for a few minutes.
Turn down the stove to low heat and add in 1 cup coconut milk, 2-3 tablespoons fish sauce, tamarind water (or tamarind paste), 1 tablespoon lime juice, and ¾ cup water and stir until combined.
Add ¼ cup palm sugar and crushed peanuts and continue to cook for 10-15 minutes
If you find the sauce too thick, add some more water to thin it out.
Taste it and adjust the flavour. Is it salty, sweet or sour enough for you? Everyone has a different preference on how they enjoy peanut sauce. Adjust accordingly by tweaking it with lime juice, sugar or fish sauce.

Although galangal and ginger come from the same family they taste very different. Do not substitute the galangal for ginger if you don't have it. Omit the galangal from the recipe instead
Everyone's preference is always different when it comes to peanut sauce. Tweak it until it's perfect for you. To make it more sour, use some lime juice. To make it more sweet, use some condensed milk. To make it more savoury, add some more fish sauce.
Smooth or Chunky? This recipe will produces a hearty chunk sauce with peanut bits but if you enjoy a smoother sauce you can just throw it in the food processor and blitz it! ?
If you’re using tamarind paste from a jar instead of tamarind pulp, make sure you are buying the ones from Thailand only. Tamarind paste from India is much stronger and potent and very sour, it will overpower the entire sauce.
If your palm sugar is too hard, microwave it for a few seconds at a time before you cut it with a knife.
If you can't find palm sugar, you can substitute it with light brown sugar.