Vietnamese Sate Sauce

This is not that Indonesian peanut sauce for grilled skewers. That’s satay sauce. This is sate sauce. Totally different beast. I’m not saying it wouldn’t be delicious on grilled skewers. But it is not the same. It’s waiting to be discovered. I see it at some Vietnamese restaurants. It’s a table sauce. For when you just want to add a flavour boost. But I don’t see it anywhere else. Too bad. People are missing out. It is hot and sweet and salty. Garlicky. With some lemongrass thrown in. Drooling yet? Use it like you would sriracha. It’s a bit hotter maybe but it’s so much better. There is sriracha in Vietnamese sate sauce. This version anyway. But it’s got so much more going on.

This Vietnamese sate sauce is spicy, not incendiary

There aren’t many recipes for Vietnamese sate sauce out there. Not sure why but they all seem to be very close variations on a theme. The definitive recipe is the one on Viet World Kitchen. Everybody else has just copied it word for word. That version is damn good but it’s also damn hot. Like yowza hot. The glebekitchen tweak to this recipe is to tone it down. Keep the big, bold taste but dial back the fire. That’s why there’s only a couple Thai chilies. Mostly it’s red finger hot chilies. All the flavour. Half the heat. Or leave the Thai chilies out altogether. Not so hot at all then. Why bother doing it this way? Because it’s so good you will want to add more. And more. And more. Then it will be too spicy to eat. For most anyway. Vietnamese sate sauce glebekitchen style. Load it on fearlessly. Enjoy.