Peanut Butter Sauce

Seems like most Asian cultures have a version of peanut sauce. This is my sister Shu-Hsien's recipe. She uses it with cucumber and homemade pasta. It tastes homey and reminds me of my childhood in Taiwan.

3 Tbsp peanut butter

2 tsp sugar

1 Tbsp soy sauce

1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 to 2 Tbsp warm water

~5 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

Handful of cilantro, chopped

Optional: hot sauce or hot pepper

Heat garlic over low heat with a bit of olive oil. Add other sauce ingredients and mix well, mixing in cilantro after the sauce is mixed. (I usually quadruple the recipe.) Mix with noodles, adding cut-up vegetables/meats as an option. Or, use with sliced cucumber, sweet pepper, lettuce and strips of roasted chicken for a yummy salad.

Version used at the 2013 Annis Family Reunion used 5X the sauce, but only 5 cloves of garlic total, mixed with a package of (cooked) spaghetti noodles. It had 2 teaspoons of Sambal Oelek hot sauce and about 2 teaspoons of salt since the soy sauce used was not very salty. It also used cucumber, bell pepper, bunch of cilantro & ~1 cup of spicy homemade peanuts (try substituting with dry roasted peanuts).