"peanut sauce" news and stories

No, I didn't actually eat dinner with Rachael Ray, but I did use a version of one of her dishes. I wanted to make something Thai-inspired that involved a peanut sauce and so I started hunting around for recipes. I actually settled on this one from Rachael Ray because it seemed straightforward and along the lines of what I had in mind: an easy chicken dish with a peanut sauce. "Authentic"? Perhaps not, but the finished dish tasted great and I would guess that it is something even Rachael's detractors could enjoy.

I'm not what you would call a sushi purist, but I really hate "California rolls" and other constructs meant to make sushi palatable to picky eaters and those fearful of raw fish. My favorite rolls include spicy tuna, barbecued eel, or soft-shelled crab, and I have a guilty love of that spicy mayonnaise served with some tempura rolls.

But when I visited a little sushi joint in downtown Portland at the insistence of my three-year-old son (he loves "slushli" and has been eating barbecued eel since before he was one), I almost didn't order the peanut sauce roll. But it had everything I love in one roll - spicy tuna, avocado, cucumber, tempura shrimp. And Thai-flavored peanut sauce. Why not?

I tried it, and though I felt a little silly, I loved it. It's terribly frou-frou and not "real" sushi. But it's good. I don't know - it works for me. Would you order such a silly piece of sushi?

[Photo Sarah Gilbert]