Thai Peanut Gravy

Thailand does not really have a gravy tradition, so it is worth being straight about what this is: a satay style peanut sauce, thinned and balanced so it behaves like one. The four way balance of salty, sour, sweet and hot is what makes it Thai rather than just a peanut sauce, so taste it at the end and push whichever corner is missing. Good over chicken, pork, noodles or roast squash.

Ingredients

Makes about 450ml, enough for four

• 1 tbsp coconut or rapeseed oil
• 2 tbsp Thai red curry paste Mae Ploy and Maesri are the usual supermarket and Asian shop brands and both are good
• 400ml tin of full fat coconut milk not the light stuff, which splits and tastes thin
• 100g (3½oz) crunchy peanut butter or 100g of roasted peanuts blitzed to a rough paste
• 1 tbsp tamarind paste sour brown fruit pulp, sold in jars in most supermarkets. Lime juice will do at a pinch
• 2 tsp palm sugar or soft light brown sugar
• 1½ tbsp fish sauce
• 150ml (5fl oz) hot chicken or vegetable stock
• 3 kaffir lime leaves, torn optional, sold frozen in Asian shops
• 1 lime, juice of
• 2 tbsp roasted peanuts, chopped, to finish

Kit

• Saucepan
• Whisk
• Small bowl

Method

1. Open the tin of coconut milk without shaking it and spoon the thick cream from the top into a saucepan with the oil. Set over a medium heat and cook for three or four minutes until it bubbles hard and you can see the oil separating out into little pools. This is called cracking the cream and it is how Thai curries start.

2. Add the curry paste and fry it in that hot coconut oil for two to three minutes, stirring constantly, until it darkens a shade and smells strongly of lemongrass and chilli rather than damp paste.

3. Stir in the peanut butter. It will seize into a thick lump, which is normal and sorts itself out in the next step.

4. Pour in the rest of the coconut milk a third at a time, whisking each addition in until smooth before the next goes in.

5. Add the tamarind, palm sugar, fish sauce, stock and lime leaves. Bring to a gentle simmer.

6. Cook uncovered for ten to twelve minutes, stirring often as peanut sauces catch easily. It will thicken to a pourable gravy and darken to a soft ochre. Add a splash more stock if it goes past that.

7. Fish out the lime leaves. Take the pan off the heat and stir in the lime juice, then taste properly. It should hit salty, sour, sweet and hot in roughly that order of loudness. Adjust with fish sauce, lime, sugar or a pinch of chilli until it does.

8. Scatter the chopped peanuts over just before serving so they stay crunchy.

Tips worth knowing

• Frying the curry paste in cracked coconut cream rather than plain oil is the step people skip, and it is the one that gives the sauce its depth.
• Peanut sauce always thickens as it cools, so leave it a little looser in the pan than you want it on the plate.
• Add lime juice off the heat. Simmered lime goes bitter and you lose the fresh sourness that keeps the sauce from feeling heavy.
• For a vegan version use a vegan curry paste, since many contain shrimp paste, and replace the fish sauce with light soy sauce plus a pinch of salt.

Keeping and reheating

Keeps five days in the fridge and thickens to a solid paste when cold. Loosen with hot stock or water while reheating over a low heat. It freezes for three months but can look grainy on defrosting, which a hard whisk fixes.

Questions people ask