I hate buying things that are labelled “Asian” or “Oriental” — it’s so vague. But…as luck would have it, I created this dressing because I fell madly in love with the salad dressing at Matsuri in Federal Hill. You can add different herbs to give it a Southeast Asian flavor…or you can leave it as-is and call it Japanese…but really, it’s just “Asian” in flavor.
Here are the ingredients in our dressing — play with the quantities to get the flavor you like. Keep in mind, I make ours in a rather large quantity each time, so I’ve tried to adjust the amounts so you won’t end up with a half-gallon of dressing.
- Peanut butter, approx. 1 cup (I use the organic peanut butter from Costco)
- Sambal (red chili sauce), 2 T
- Canola oil
- Dark brown sugar (do not use raw sugar, use brown sugar….raw sugar doesn’t blend well)
- Kosher salt, 1 tsp
- shallot, 1 minced
Mix peanut butter and dark brown sugar in a bowl, microwave for about 1 minute until soft enough to stir. Make sure sugar is blended well. Add salt and shallot. Drizzle in enough canola oil to make a smooth dressing.
This also makes a yummy dipping sauce for satay or as a dressing for vegetable wraps. Or you could do what I’ve wanted to do with Matsuri’s dressing and just drink it when nobody’s looking. Mmmm.