What's your best/favorite recipe?

March 12, 2004 8:39 AM

What's your best/favorite recipe?
posted by yangwar to Food & Drink (32 answers total)

Mike's Sirloin.

It's my favorite....a tender steak with the juices, salt, & pepper as it's only sauce. It's great with my baked potato salad, that I can't have anymore, since I started cutting carbs.
posted by mkelley at 8:48 AM on March 12, 2004

Baked Ziti with Fake Ground Beef
· 1 package "recipe crumble" fake ground beef- equivalent of 1 pound of meat
· 1/2 cup chopped onion
· 1 green bell pepper, chopped, about 1/2 cup
· 1 can (14.5 ounces) diced tomatoes, undrained
· 1 can (8 ounces) tomato sauce
· 1 tablespoon fresh minced basil
· 1/2 teaspoon dried leaf oregano, crumbled
· 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder or small clove garlic, minced
· 1 teaspoons
· 1/4 teaspoon pepper
· 8 ounces ziti or penne pasta, cooked and drained
· 2 cups (8 ounces) shredded mozzarella cheese, divided

Sauté fake ground beef, onion, and green bell pepper in a large skillet until onion is tender. Add tomatoes, tomato sauce, basil, oregano, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Stir well; stir in ziti and 1 cup of the cheese; transfer to a 2 1/2-quart casserole. Top with the remaining cup of cheese. Bake at 350° for 25 to 30 minutes, or until hot and bubbly.

You could use real meat if you swing that way. I've also replace the meat/cryptomeat with mushrooms and that worked pretty well.
posted by COBRA! at 9:04 AM on March 12, 2004

Crap. The truncated ingredient is 1 teaspoon of salt.
posted by COBRA! at 9:05 AM on March 12, 2004

1 box of Kraft Mac and cheese
use only half of the recommended amount of milk.
add a little more butter than they recommend.
cook the noodles to al dante (sp?) rather than limp.

serve hot.
posted by Stynxno at 9:14 AM on March 12, 2004

Hrm. I love food. Some of my favorite recipes (via my weblog — sorry):

Best Gingerbread Cookies Ever
Fresh Table Salsa (a recipe for your summer garden)
Thai Beef Salad
And, my favorite: Skipjack's Clam Chowder

Great question. I'm hoping to get a couple of good recipes from the responses!
posted by jdroth at 9:26 AM on March 12, 2004

Key Lime Poundcake from "Gulf Coast Kitchens."
Cream cheese, sour cream, 3 sticks of butter, 3 cups of sugar, 6 eggs, lots of lime juice and lime peel, and complete decadence.
I've already made it twice this week for various events - every time someone takes a bite, their eyes go wide and they beg for the recipe.
Because I love that cookbook and think everyone should own it, I'm not including Constance Snow's recipe here. The Key Lime Daiquiri Poundcake recipe here is somewhat similar.
(Is it a coincidence that when you spellcheck "Poundcake," the suggested spelling is "poundage?"

By the way jdroth, I'm right there with you on the Thai Beef Salad.
posted by pomegranate at 9:43 AM on March 12, 2004

Filet of sole. Soak in milk for 30 minutes. Dry and then lightly coat with lemon curd. Bread with roasted and chopped macadamia nuts. Sautee in butter. MMMMM
posted by scottymac at 9:47 AM on March 12, 2004 [1 favorite]

Not so much a recipe as a technique, Beer Can Chicken not only tastes amazing but is a great conversation piece as well.

The rub included on that page works well with the chicken, and it's a good rub, but you can put just about anything you want on 'em.
posted by bondcliff at 9:53 AM on March 12, 2004

posted by shepd at 9:56 AM on March 12, 2004

For the vegetarians: Polenta Puttanesca is the only recipe I have memorized. Quick, visually appealing, and utterly delicious. (You can tone down the garlic if you want, but it's better with the full amount.)
posted by Johnny Assay at 10:10 AM on March 12, 2004

Much like Johnny, I have memorized one recipe that is quick to make and very delicious (but sadly involves meat for you veggie types):

2-4 Pork chops (we use 2 inch thick pork loin chops, no bone)
1 cup chicken broth
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
2 cloves of garlic, minced

Fry the pork chops for a few minutes on each side. Remove from pan.
Add broth, vinegar, sugar and garlic to the pan and bring to a boil.
Reduce the heat and allow the sauce to start evaporating. Put the meat back in the pan, along with any juices. Continue reducing the sauce until thick and syrupy (while flipping the meat occassionaly).

We normally make that with couscous (1 cup couscous, 11/2 cup chicken broth; throw in some cashews and raisins to jazz it up) and some kind of steamed veggie. Very good.
posted by smcniven at 10:20 AM on March 12, 2004

Chicken Potato Parmesan Casserole

Parmesan cheese
Hungry Jack Mashed potato flakes*
water
milk
margarine
some oregano, basil, parsley
4 Chicken breasts

Put the chicken breasts in a casserole pan (8" square or 8x12 should be good). Add potato flakes, water, and milk in the ratio on the box, then add about 1/2 cup extra water and 1/3 cup parmesan. Put in a dab of margarine and some spices. Mix thoroughly - it should be about the consistency of oatmeal. Cover with foil and put in the oven at 375F until chicken is done (about 30 minutes).

Not a shill, but you DO need potato FLAKES as opposed to the powdery junk. This is the best brand I've found so far.
posted by whatzit at 10:39 AM on March 12, 2004 [1 favorite]

I don't make this for company but it's my favorite simple fry-up when feeding myself:

Cook 1 cup of white rice per instructions, adding 3/4 teaspoon of curry powder. Meanwhile, chop thinly three or four cloves of garlic, one large spanish onion, and ten or so medium sized button mushrooms. Sauté all those in extra-virgin olive oil with most of a teaspoon each of dried basil and oregano and a little salt and pepper. When the rice is about done and the veggies are all limp and brown, add a half-pound or so of either lean ground beef or diced chicken to the sauté and cook through. If you used beef, throw the sauté into a colander to drain the fat. Mix the rice and the sauté together in a bowl and spoon onto plates, topping with quite a lot of chopped parsley. Addictively savory and delicious.
posted by nicwolff at 10:44 AM on March 12, 2004

My version of tender vegan muffins.

I also really like making risotto using a pressure cooker. It's yummy and easy. Fry up a couple of onions or onion analogs in some olive oil until translucent, add 1 1/2 cups of arborio rice and mix it up with the onions and oil. You can also add some spices at this point (like saffron. Yum!). Then add 3 or 4 cups of broth (in my case veggie broth) and bring to a boil. Cover, bring to pressure for five minutes and then do a quick release by cooling the pressure cooker with cold running tap water. Open it up and it's time to add some salt, pepper and about 2 to 3 cups of whatever tasty veggies you have around. I've used all sorts of things. Also add 1/2 cup of parmesan (or veggie parmesan) cheese. Mix and heat until the veggies are cooked and the rice is tender and everything's creamy.

Fantastic! And it can be just about anything. I've made mushrooms the star, or apples and raisins and even pomegranate seeds. It's very very versatile.

The pressure cooking is the key though, so you don't have to worry about stirring the rice forever.
posted by ursus_comiter at 10:46 AM on March 12, 2004

Only lunatics will avoid visiting The Hungry Tiger, a weblog that regularly features really great vegetarian recipes and cooking stories.
posted by Skot at 10:51 AM on March 12, 2004

This is my favorite, because it gets excellent results with little or no time invested--

Take a thin-sliced chicken breast, liberally seasoned with black pepper, paprika, and McCormick's Seasoned Salt. Dredge it in flour, and cook it in a pan with olive oil and butter. Mmmm.
posted by Prospero at 11:02 AM on March 12, 2004

This macaroni and cheese recipe is quite a bit of work but very very good.
posted by modofo at 11:09 AM on March 12, 2004

Sunday Mornings:

Mix:
2c flour
1/4 c sugar
4t baking powder
1/2 t salt

Cut in (with a pastry cutter):
1/4 c cold butter

Add 2/3 c dried currants

Add 2/3 c milk (buttermilk)

Mix wet to dry. Knead 8-10 times until dough just becomes elastic. Form a circular pat, cut into eighths with a sharp knife. Place on a greased sheet, score tops.

Cook @ 425F for about 15 mins, until tops begin to brown.

Variations:
*1 1/3 flour + 1 c bran
*Add 1T orange zest
*use 3/4c plain yoghurt in place of milk
*use 1c white, 1c brown flour.

For fancier tops, brush with a wash of egg white and milk, then dust with sugar.
posted by bonehead at 11:21 AM on March 12, 2004

Grilled Broccoli
FROM THE TWILIGHT CAFÉ, SANIBEL, FLORIDA

Marinate broccoli and rings of red onion in equal portions of soy sauce, red wine vinegar, and olive oil for several hours. Grill and Enjoy!
~
The yuca frita con mojo criollo I made last night was pretty good too!
posted by Utilitaritron at 11:38 AM on March 12, 2004

I really love steamed, marinated salmon.

Marinade ingredients:
-Soy sauce
-Mirin (sweet cooking sake. If you don't have any, you can probably substitute a little vermouth and sugar)
-Sesame oil
-Chopped ginger
-Cracked pepper

I never bother to measure it, but the ration of soy sauce:mirin:sesame oil should be about 5:1:1. Stir everything together, then marinade your salmon filet in it. A few hours will do, since fish marinades fast, but you can leave it in overnight if you want to. Steam the salmon until done (5-10 minutes). It goes well with steamed veggies, rice, or noodles - I like to reserve some of the marinade and toss some cheap Chinese wheat noodles in it (but don't use marinade that you already used for the fish!)
posted by vorfeed at 11:49 AM on March 12, 2004

Skot: Thanks for the Hungry Tiger link, that looks like a great food blog.
posted by vorfeed at 11:52 AM on March 12, 2004

Response by poster: Grilled Teriyaki Salmon

Marinade
------------
Over low heat mix:
2/3 cup soy sauce (shoyu if you can get it)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 Tablespoon Mirin
2 Tablespoons Rice Vinegar
4 cloves garlic
1/2 sliced sweet onion Maui, Vidalia, any sweet variety will do
1 Teaspoon grated ginger

Marinate 2-3 precooked salmon fillets in marinade 3 hours - overnight

Barbecue fillets on high heat for 3 minutes per side. Thereafter lower heat to low and cook 6 minutes per side.

While fillets are grilling, place remaining marinade over low heat and add brown sugar until it has the viscosity of heavy cream.

Place fillets on plate and spoon sauce on as desired.
posted by yangwar at 12:04 PM on March 12, 2004 [1 favorite]

I love tabouli, but with the following modifications:

Quinoa instead of bulgur. Cook it with 3 cups water to one cup quinoa.

Fresh mint is a must.

I use about 3 limes worth of juice, but that's my taste.

I always add cucumber. You can salt and drain the cucumber if you want the salad to be less soggy, but it's not absolutely necessary.
posted by O9scar at 12:27 PM on March 12, 2004

Paprika chicken

1 chicken split into portions
2 onions, roughly chopped
>=2 tbs Hungarian paprika (hot is best)
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 can tomatoes, chopped
salt and black pepper
1 green pepper, chopped
100ml (4oz) sour cream

Gently fry the onions in the fat until softened and golden. Add the paprika and garlic and fry for a minute or so. Turn up the heat and add the chicken, browning it well on all sides. Add the tomatoes, salt and pepper to taste, and heat until bubbling. Cover and let simmer for half an hour or so. Add the green pepper and cook until the chicken juices run clear (about another 15 minutes). Stir in the sour cream and serve with knockerln and dill gherkins. All measures approximate, estimated from watching my mother cook it who in turn learned it from her Hungarian grandmother-in-law.
posted by cbrody at 3:53 PM on March 12, 2004

I have so many favorites that I have two 3-ring binders stuffed to the max, but I'll give you the two most requested.

Six Hour Pork Roast
Mix one bottle of dark beer, 2 C brown sugar, and fresh-ground pepper to taste. Pour over a 5 to 6lb Boston Butt Pork Roast arranged fatty side up in a baking dish. Bake at 275 for 6 hours.

The time can be approximate...say 5 1/2 to 7 hours. It is perfect for long Sunday afternoon hikes. You come home exhausted to a house that smells like heaven. And plenty of leftovers for pork chow mein, barbecue pork sandwiches, etc.

Whiskey Mushrooms
Saute a tablespoon of minced onion in 2 oz butter. Add 1 lb of mushrooms cleaned and quartered. Continue cooking until mushrooms begin to give up their liquid. Pour in a pint of heavy cream. Simmer until cream begins to thicken-- 20 to 30 minutes. Salt to taste and just before serving, stir in 3 Tablespoons of good whiskey.

Usually I pop a couple of potatoes in the oven to roast, start the mushrooms and after simmering 10 minutes, throw a couple of sirloin steaks on to broil. I cook the steaks in very hot olive oil with lots of worcestershire sauce. Pour your mushroom sauce over your steak and potato. With a tossed salad and a bottle of red, you will eat like a king and queen.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 4:47 PM on March 12, 2004

Black Bean Lasagna, a Cooking Light recipe; everyone I have made this for raves over it. Use any salsa as hot as you like and 2 cups of fresh chopped tomatos for the canned. This gets my husband's vote as his favorite.

My two very favorite homemade comfort foods:

Corn tortillas. Put dried cracked corn kernels in a lot of water and boil 'til soft enough to grind (perhaps an hour); drain. Process through a grinder along with chunks of boiled yucca (3:1 proportion of corn to yucca). Stir well and carefully form the sticky thick mush into fat little patties with a plastic hamburger smusher. Deep fry. Serve with cheddar cheese (or in a pinch, American cheese) gently melted on top.

Broiled portobellos. Slice portobellos (large or baby-sized doesn't matter) into thickish pieces. Marinate for a bit in a mixture of (more) olive oil, (some) balsamic vinegar, (less) lime juice, minced garlic, chopped green onions, rosemary, salt and black pepper. Spread out single layer in a baking pan and put under the broiler for 5-7 minutes, until sizzling very brown near to black. Drain most of the marinade off, add bits of roasted red pepper and reconstituted sun-dried tomato, and crumble feta cheese into it. Serve hot or cold, by itself, on toast, in a sub roll as a sandwich.... very, very rich. The leftover marinade can be reused to great effect as a salad dressing or roasted pepper storage.
posted by Melinika at 5:43 PM on March 12, 2004 [1 favorite]

Warning: long-ass comment ahead!

Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't post something like this in AskMetafilter, but this just happened, and it pertains to todays discussion, so...

---

When I was a boy, my mom always baked Texas Sheet Cake for my birthday. I loved the stuff: a light and cake-like brownie covered with a powdered sugar frosting, very chocolatey all the way through. When I got married, I made sure to get the recipe from mom so that I could make Texas Sheet Cake for friends.

Somehow, it's been five years since I baked Texas Sheet Cake. My wife and I are hosting a kids' fiesta tomorrow, though, a huge group lunch of chicken noodle soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. I thought Texas Sheet Cake would be a perfect dessert.

Kris e-mailed me today at work: "Hey-- I'm trying to make a shopping list. Where can I find your recipe for Texas sheet cake? It's not in the spiral 'favorite recipes' book."

"That's strange," I thought. It should be there. I put all of my favorite recipes there. I e-mailed her to look again, but she couldn't find it.

When I got home, I looked, too. The recipe wasn't there. "Maybe it's in my recipe box," I said. But it wasn't. It wasn't tucked in our dessert cookbook, either. It wasn't in any of our recipe boxes or cookbooks.

"Ah well," I said. "I guess we'll just make lime jello."

Then, as we were walking out the door, I spied a piece of paper sticking out from the bookshelf by the entry way. "What's this?" I thought. It was the recipe for Texas Sheet Cake! I showed it to Kris, who wasn't nearly as impressed by my fortunate discovery.

"What's this?" she said. "It calls for a 10-1/2 x 15-1/2 inch pan. We don't have one of those."

"No problem," I said. "I've always just used your cookie sheets."

"My cookie sheets are 12 x 16," she said. "They're too big. You'd have to adjust the recipe."

"No, I just use the cookie sheets."

"Look," she said, "If you don't adjust the recipe, the brownies are going to be too thin. They're going to burn. Get a calculator; determine the total area of each pan."

"You don't have to explain the math to me," I said. "Trust me — I've always used a cookie sheet and it works just fine."

---

Later, after our grocery trip, I began to make the Texas Sheet Cake. I mixed all the dry ingredients, boiled the cocoa mixture, beat in the eggs and buttermilk.

Then I pulled out a cookie sheet.

"Hmmm," I thought. "That's too big."

I found Kris in the garden. "Honey," I said. "The cookie sheet is too big. I need a 10-1/2 x 15-1/2 pan."

Kris didn't say anything.

"That's okay, though, because I forgot to pre-heat the oven. I can just run to the store to get the baking sheet while the over warms up."

"Get some name tags," she sighed as I walked away.

---

Fortunately, the store had both the baking sheet I needed and the name tags for our guests. I returned home, popped the Texas Sheet Cake in the oven, and began to work on the frosting. After twenty minutes, I pulled the brownies from the oven.

I didn't like what I saw.

"Kris," I called. "I need your help."

"What now?" she said, and then she saw the brownies: somehow, someway, they had risen to twice the size of the pan. They're not supposed to do that; they're supposed to set level with the lip, or just below.

"Well," said Kris, "It looks as if you added too much of your leavening agent."

"What's a leavening agent?" I asked, only half joking.

She fixed me with her stare. "In this case it's your eggs or your baking soda. I'll bet you added too much baking soda." I didn't recall adding more than one teaspoon, but with me anything is possible.

"I guess I'll just wait for it to settle," I said.

"Good idea," said Kris.

Only it didn't settle. The Texas Sheet Cake just sat there, towering above the pan. I glanced again at the recipe: Immediately pour frosting over warm cake. I began to get nervous. The recipe said immediately didn't it? And immediately was already sometime in the past. I'd better salvage what I could of the recipe.

I poured the frosting over the cake. The cake poured the frosting over onto the counter.

Kris walked back into the kitchen. "What are you doing?" she said. "Do you see why I don't like to be around when you cook? Why don't you ever write about stuff like this in your weblog?"

Probably because I can tuck the story in an AskMe thread instead...

---

I've cleaned up the frosting mess on the counter (about a half cup had oozed of the cake), and now I present you all with the recipe that gave me so much trouble today:

Texas Sheet Cake
(taken from mid-seventies cookbook my mother had when I was a kid)

In a saucepan, combine 1 cup water, 1/2 cup butter or margarine, 1/4 cup shortening, and 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder; cook and stir till boiling. Remove from heat.

IN mixing bowl stir together 2 cups all-purpose flour, 2 cups granulated sugar, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Add hot cocoa mixture; mix till smooth. Add 1/2 cup buttermilk, 2 eggs, and 1 teaspoon vanilla; beat well. Pour into a greased 15-1/2 x 10-1/2 x 1 inch baking pan. Bake at 375 degrees (Fahrenheit) for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, in saucepan combine 1/2 cup butter, 6 tablespoons buttermilk, and 1/4 cup cocoa powder. Cook and stir till boiling; remove from heat. Gradually blend in 16 oz. powdered sugar (sifted) and 1 teaspoon vanilla till smooth. Immediately pour frosting over warm cake. Cool.

Warning: this is not a dessert for dieters. By my calculations, one small piece (1/48th of the sheet cake) contains 185 calories, 6g fat (3g saturated), and 33g carbohydrates (most of which are sugar). But damn these are good...
posted by jdroth at 6:52 PM on March 12, 2004

There was a time I had a pumpkin pie recipe that I favoured, but the MeTa hordes beat the the enjoyment of it out of me.
posted by five fresh fish at 6:55 PM on March 12, 2004

On the other hand, maybe I did use a tablespoon of baking soda. The brownies are bitter.
posted by jdroth at 7:04 PM on March 12, 2004

oen of my best non-baby recipes is for scrambled eggs. No, not that "I'm too lazy to make an omelette" shit, real scrambled eggs, where the proteins are slowly denatured, leaving you with a creamy delicious eggy heaven.

I hope you like parenthesis, because you're about to get a whole bunch of them.

Scrambled Eggs for those who are Patient Enough to Deserve Them, but Well Worth It

Ingredients:
3-7 eggs, depending upon how hungry I (you) am (are)
1/2 med. white onion (the color doesn't really matter. I like white onion, because it's strong. I suppose yellow onion would also work, but stay away from that maui stuff, which is delicious on sandwiches, but a waste of money when cooked. I like a lot of onions. YMMV)
1 ripe haas avocado (if you can get it... the flavor is better than the thin-skinned kind, but any avocado is worlds better than none at all)
tabasco sauce. (capsaicin is scientifically proven to enhance flavor, plus I like spicy food. fancy-ass hot sauces with mango and fruit and shit don't work here. simple is good.)
butter. lots of butter.
kosher salt (the iodine in iodized salt causes it to taste like ass--some gourmet chef remarked that the easiest way to drastically improve one's cooking is to use kosher salt. even if you don't use this recipe, for the love of jesus™, use kosher salt!)
black pepper (freshly ground, of course.)
heavy cream/half and half/milk (not really completely necessary, but if you've got it, put that shizz in. even skim, which my parents drank)

Begin by dicing the onion. Heat about a tablespoon or three (hee!) of butter in the pan until the bubbling ceases, and add tabasco (I use a few healthy shakes, 'cuz I like spicy food) and a good deal of ground pepper (this is important because the volatile flavor compounds in fresh pepper are fat-soluble)... the vinegar in the tabasco evaporates out, as you'll most assuredly smell. Drop in the chopped onion and fry until... well... Depending on how lazy/hungry/perfectionistic I'm feeling, I'll just barely fry them, or go all the way past translucent into well-carmelized. I haven't really been able to tell too much of a difference, really. When the onions are done, turn off the burner and let the pan & onions cool, while you beat the eggs.

When I was paging through alton brown's cookbook in costco, (which I didn't buy at the time, as a poor 19 year old) he noted how important it is to not crack eggs on a sharp edge--instead give it a clean blow (huh huh) on a flat surface. not only does this prevent bits of shell from tainting the eggs, but it also protects the yolk from being popped by shell shrapnel if you're going to, say, fry them (but you're not, right? yeah.)
add the heavy cream, if you've got it, and a handful of chopped raw onion (gotta love that onion-y flavor). Add more ground pepper, and whisk well, until the eggs are homogenized, because little lines of white in scrambled eggs are totally un-classy. Add tabasco (I normally shake until the eggs look a bit orange, but, once again, YMMV) and whisk thoroughly. Little cold cubes of butter are a plus, but if the butter's room temp, I just put more into the pan, anyway.

Turn the pan back on, and put it on low heat. Low, dammit! put in a tablespoon or so of butter and when it starts to melt, pour in the eggs. Now, DO NOT TURN UP THE HEAT. Take your spatula/pancake turner/whatever the hell and scrape it along the bottom of the pan, constantly, for the next half hour or so. At first, it will seem like nothing is happening, but soon enough, you'll notice the protein denaturing, and it will look like the liquid egg + onion is made of little granules. Do not turn the heat up. Keep on scraping. I like to listen to steve reich (music for 18 musicians, triple quartet) or boards of canada (music has the right to children, geogaddi) while I make these eggs. For the next half hour or so, the eggs will eventually begin to thicken and curdle, looking somewhat like yellow cottage cheese. Don't stop stirring. When the eggs stick to the pan, they get denatured too quickly and the water is squeezed out of the egg. Ew.

At some point, a whole cubed avocado is added. If you add it when the eggs are nearing completion, you end up with lovely golden curds with emerald chunks of avocado sticking out. Screw that. I add in the avocado early on, and it eventually gets mushed up by the constant stirring, leading to rather nasty-looking greenish eggs, only a few shades lighter than the background of this page... but there's plenty of avocado in each and every bite.

Serve with plenty of toast (I like roman meal) and fresh squeezed orange juice (from trader joe's... everything in this recipe is best purchased from trader joe's except for the roman meal bread). Enjoy the music while you eat. Reading/watching television while eating distracts from both the food and the information... but eating and listening to quality music enhances both.

It's sad, because I'm typing this from my dorm room, where I haven't made these eggs for months.
posted by LimePi at 2:11 AM on March 13, 2004 [2 favorites]

oh. also, sprinkle on the salt after the eggs are made, giving you a little bit of crunch and delicious salty flavor.

but you already knew that.
posted by LimePi at 3:57 AM on March 13, 2004

Thai Peanut Sauce:

1 Tbsp Thai red curry paste
2 c. coconut milk
8 Tbsp fish sauce
4 Tbsp sugar
1/2 c. ground unsalted peanuts

Heat curry paste in a wok with 1/4 c. of the coconut milk.
Simmer 1 - 2 minutes.
Some oil should foam to the top. Add fish sauce and sugar. Bring to a boil again and add remaining coconut milk. Add peanuts, bring to a boil and simmer slowly for 15 minutes. Cool slightly and serve with satay, rice, etc.

Vary the amount of curry paste if you want the sauce hotter or milder.

Better than most restaurant peanut sauce I've had, and very simple.

I'd post the satay recipe to go with it, but I don't have it here at the moment and I don't have it memorized anymore (I learned a while back that I shouldn't make it as often as I used to, because I was eating WAY too much peanut sauce with the satay, so it's only an occasional treat now).
posted by litlnemo at 4:51 AM on March 13, 2004