LUCY BURDETTE: We are tickled pink to be hosting Annie Knox (aka Wendy Watson) on the blog today. Longtime visitors will recognize her as a former regular poster on Mystery Lovers Kitchen. We miss her good humor and her food and are thrilled to have her visit!
ANNIE KNOX: First things first: thank you to Lucy
I’ve had a forty-five year love affair with peanut
butter. As a child, my lunch box
favorite was the peanut butter sandwich.
Other kids crowed over ham, turkey, even egg salad. But not me.
If I’d had my druthers, I would have had peanut butter every day. Sometimes the sandwiches were peanut butter
with jelly or jam, but other times I got peanut butter with banana, peanut
butter with marshmallow fluff, or even peanut butter with white sugar (my
mother didn’t stress out much about nutrition).
As I grew up, I started putting peanut butter on other
stuff: celery, apple slices, toast,
bagels, saltines, graham crackers, chocolate bars. I mixed peanut butter with chocolate or vanilla
ice cream, and sometimes just ate it off the spoon.
Imagine my delight when I left my meat-and-potatoes
Midwestern home and discovered that peanuts and peanut butter could form the
basis for more complex and “adult” food.
One Thanksgiving, I spent the holiday with a bunch of fellow law students
and we had a potluck. One of my friends
brought an African groundnut stew that combined sweet potatoes and cabbage in a
rich gravy of tomato, ginger, cayenne, and peanut butter. I confess, I was skeptical. The combination sounded completely weird and
the color was not particularly appetizing.
But my love of peanut butter won out and I gave it a try . . . and was
amazed at the earthy deliciousness.
Then I moved to the big city (Minneapolis) and discovered
that Asian cuisine was more than water chestnuts and La Choy crispy
noodles. Once again, I discovered that
ground peanuts played an important role in some of my favorite dishes, like
satay and the yummy dipping sauce that came with the summer rolls at my
favorite Thai restaurant.
I was on a big stir fry kick when I discovered the recipe
for this sauce. Well, the original. It’s been tweaked over the years to make it
simpler and, to me, tastier. This sauce
would be great served over stir-fried chicken or tofu. It would also make a good dipping sauce for
satay or fresh rolls of some sort. I
personally toss the sauce with a package of cooked linguine and then top it
with vegetables stir-fried with garlic and ginger.
Finally, a word of warning:
there is absolutely nothing authentic about this recipe. Note that I used the generic “Asian” instead
of “Thai” or “Chinese” or “Korean.”
That’s on purpose. This is an
Americanized mish-mash of Asian flavors.
But I wouldn’t be posting it if it wasn’t dang tasty. And dang easy. So I hope you enjoy.
Easy Asian Peanut
Sauce
½ c. creamy peanut butter
1 tsp. sesame oil
2 Tbs. soy sauce
4 tsp. crushed or minced garlic
½ c. hot tap water
¼ c. chopped cilantro
3 Tbs. vinegar (rice, white wine, or apple cider)
2 tsp. sugar
½ tsp. crushed red pepper
Combine the peanut butter, sesame oil, soy sauce, and garlic
in a medium bowl. Whisk in hot water
then whisk in remaining ingredients.
Allow sauce to stand at room temperature for an hour before tossing with
pasta, adding to stir fry, or using as a dipping sauce.
About Annie …
Annie Knox doesn't commit--or
solve--murders in her real life, but her passion for animals is 100% true.
She's also a devotee of 80s music, Asian horror films, and reality TV. While
Annie is a native Buckeye and has called a half dozen states "home,"
she and her husband now live in a crumbling historic house just a stone's throw
from the courthouse square in a north Texas town.
About the Pet
Boutique Mysteries …
Meet Izzy McHale, owner of Trendy Tails Pet Boutique in cozy
Merryville, Minnesota. She and her pets,
Packer and Jinx, have a passion for fashion.
While her best friend Rena Hamilton makes organic pet treats for the
business’s “barkery,” Izzy is designing canine couture and feline fashions for
Merryville’s booming tourist trade.
Trouble has a knack for finding Izzy and her friends and family. Fortunately, Izzy and her gang have a knack
for tackling trouble head on, solving mysteries and keeping Trendy Tails’s
doors open. Follow Izzy’s adventures in Paws for Murder and Groomed for Murder.
In Collared for Murder,
the third Pet Boutique Mystery, Merryville, Minnesota, plays host to a renowned
cat show. When the show’s wealthy patron
is murdered and the grand prize collar dangle goes missing, Izzy and friends
are on the case. Read more on Facebook or Annie's website.
ANNIE WILL BE GIVING AWAY THREE BOOKS TODAY, so be sure to leave a comment with your email to be entered in the drawing!
ANNIE WILL BE GIVING AWAY THREE BOOKS TODAY, so be sure to leave a comment with your email to be entered in the drawing!
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