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Wednesday, July 27, 2011

A Recipe Detour & Thai Peanut Sauce

Do your recipes ever take a detour?


On Sunday night we had a little mishap with the grill and it turned our hopes of tender, fall-apart, smoked beef brisket into a tougher-than-we-like-to-eat piece of steak. The flavor was really good, though. We were still pretty bummed.

Hubby suggested we make carbless tacos with the meat (or tacos with a lettuce leaf "tortilla"). Way to think positively! That's one meal we do when we're cutting the starch out of our diet.

Well, I looked in the fridge and pantry, and all I had was tomatoes, a can of olives, and beans. I don't know about you, but I have a hard time calling something a taco if it doesn't have sour cream and guacamole. Or at least salsa. I had none. I wasn't feeling it.

So, I thought...(careful, you're about to see how my mind works)..."Lettuce. I have iceberg lettuce. Lettuce wraps. Asian. Peanut sauce. I have peanut butter. I got carrots. Baby ones."

I looked a little deeper and continued my mind banter, "I don't have bean sprouts. But, ooh, I have tofu! Ok, I need something like a water chestnut or a bamboo shoot. Wait, I just bought hearts of palm!!" Score.

Julienned baby carrots and hearts of palm.
Seared tofu: it was better cutting it small first, then searing it with a little cooking spray.
Takes more of the moisture out of it.
I chopped everything up. I took the beef and the tofu to the saute pan and seared them a bit. Then I threw this sauce together:

Thai Peanut Sauce (for lettuce wraps, salad, or satays), makes about 1/2 cup
3T. peanut butter (crunchy or creamy)
2T. soy sauce
2T. lemon juice
1 1/2 T. agave nectar or honey
1T. sesame oil
1T. water (or more if you like it thinner)
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper

It was a TV dinner - with red wine and So You Think You Can Dance
The lettuce wrap with all the components
The lemon juice really makes it good. The next day I made the leftovers into a salad. It rocked.

Moral of the story: don't let a measly mishap mess up your meal. Sometimes life throws you a detour. Just keep going and enjoy the ride. :o)

1 comment:

  1. How resourceful! Would this sauce work for Taiwanese Cold Noodles as well?

    ReplyDelete