Suki Yaki Sauce

I love this sauce. It's used in a hot pot sort of meal.  Big bowls of soup, prepared at the table or bowl by bowl. This is not like a Japanese Sukiyaki, it's more Thai/Lao. When I was a little girl my mom would make a big pot of broth. There would be all sorts of vegetables and herbs set out. We'd break a raw egg into our bowls.  My mom would dip cellophane

noodles, vegetables like napa cabbage, Chinese water spinach, green onion, spinach, mushrooms and Chinese celery into the boiling broth to cook it. There would also be fish/pork meatballs, thinly sliced beef, shrimp, scallops and/or tofu. Once the hot broth ran over the tops of the egg in the bowls it would get only slightly cooked but the broth would be a little creamy from the yolk.  I love my strips of beef rare. My dad likes the fish balls. Which are meatballs made with fish. We would spoon the sauce into our bowls and have a little on the side to dip celery stalks and other vegetables and herbs into while we ate.

My mom used to grind the sesame seeds on her own, I use Tahini and it works beautifully. My mom says she's never using sesame seeds again ;). Being that we have "littles" around here that are allergic to peanuts and don't like things too incredibly spicy hot this recipe is adapted for them also. I use raw organic almond butter instead of peanut, plain almond butter is fine. I also don't use the spicy  Red Dofu-ru. I use the more mild jar. If you've never had dofu-ru it is a strong flavor. Maybe an acquired tasted. I used to eat bowls of congee with dofu-ru with my grandfather when I was little. I could only take little dabs of it because it was so spicy for me.

Suki Yaki Sauce

1 (15 ounce) can coconut milk

1 to 1 1/2 cup  Dofu-ru (fermented beancurd) (the red has chili and is hotter, you can substitute one that isn't red- which we did but use the red if you can.)

1/3 cup juice from fermented bean curd jar

6 tablespoons tahini

10 tablespoons raw organic almond butter 

4 tablespoons sugar

3 cloves minced garlic or 2 pickled garlic cloves 

3 tablespoons lime juice or pickled garlic juice

3 heaping tablespoons I added quite a bit of paprika for color  because I did not use the red dofu-ru. 

1. Heat the coconut milk in a pot.
2.  Once fragrant add remaining ingredients and stir until smooth. 
3. Cook this low and slow stirring until the oil starts to separate. It will look like the picture below.  
4. Once the oil separates like this you can cook it for 10 minutes longer. 
5. Then turn the heat up and cook it for about five minutes until fragrant. 
6. Stir to combine the oil and transfer into jars.