Satay stir-fry sauce

[godzemo]

So I'm bored, I saw this community, and I cook a lot. In particular, I cook a lot of stir-fry dishes, and so I've come up with quite a variety of sauces to add flavour. Additionally, I've spent some time travelling in countries that are not very vegan-friendly at all, so I've developed a number of recipes that can be easily made from basic supermarket ingredients just about anywhere. If you can't get your hands on a particular ingredient, just post a comment and I'll suggest some replacements.

The Sauce
200 mL peanut butter (I use smooth, but crunchy works too)
200 mL coconut cream (or coconut milk, if you like a thinner sauce)
2 tsp sweet soy sauce (or, regular soy sauce with 1 tsp sugar)
1 tsp cinnamon (or more, to taste)
+ a few drops of hotsauce to taste (I use quite a bit, but I like my sauce hot and spicy)

Heat up the peanut butter so it's soft enough to mix. Add all the other ingredients, and mix until vaguely homogenous. Any mixing you miss, the stir-fry process will finish for you.

Unlike many satay sauces, I would not recommend this as a dipping sauce. It only comes into its full flavour when you cook it in. However, you can use it for your personal favourite vegetables.

Now, the next section is how I tend to do it, but I vary the recipe, and just about any mix of ingredients can be stir-fired. The power is, uh, yours!

The Stir-Fry
1 kg hokkien noodles
3 medium carrots
1 red capsicum (bell pepper, for the Americans)
1 yellow capsicum
200g (or more!) button mushroom
180g lotus root
800g tofu
2 tbsp peanut OR sesame OR olive oil
1/2 cup water

Preparation:

1. Separate the hokkien noodles in hot water, drain, and set aside for later. Wash all the vegetables!
   
2. Peel and thinly slice the carrots, set aside for later.
3. Boil the lotus root until you can stick a knife into it without breaking the knife. I prefer to buy my lotus root pre-sliced, since preparing the stuff is a pain in the ass. Set aside for... you get the picture. It's a stir fry. Set everything aside (separately!) for later.
   As a guide, you want the lotus root to be roughly as hard as raw carrot.
   
4. Slice or dice (your preference) the mushroom and capsicum. You can put the two colours of capsicum in a bowl together if you really want.
5. Cube the tofu.

Cooking:
The big tip here is that the time needed for each step is dependent on your stovetop heat. Hotter is better! A gas stove will finish this in a jiffy, but an old electric clunker might take as long as twenty minutes all up.

1. Put the oil in a large wok (lacking that, a large fry-pan with high sides will do).
2. Heat the oil. You can test it by flicking a drop of water at it- if it crackles and pops, it's ready.
3. Throw in the tofu, carrots and lotus root. Stir like a madman! I hope you have strong arms, you're going to be stirring a lot now.
   This is where the water comes in. You're going to want to maintain a thin layer of water at the bottom of the wok to keep stuff from sticking. So pour in some of the water, and pour a little more when it looks like it's almost all boiled away.
4. After you've been going at it with the root vegetables for a few minutes (not too long, or they'll be too soft when you're done), throw in the capsicum. Keep stirring. Don't forget to keep a thin layer of water at the bottom!
5. Once the capsicum is getting a bit softer (but once again, not too much or you'll be eating mushy capsicum!), add in the mushrooms.
   
6. Now you can safely go until the vegetables are all just about ready to eat. The idea is that they'll all be roughly the same hardness when you're done. Toss in the hokkien noodles and the sauce (you did remember to make the sauce... right?). Stir stir stir stir STIR DAMMIT. Once everything is nicely mixed through, give it another minute, and then take the whole thing off the stove.

There you have it! Tasty stir-fry goodness. I can finish one of these on my own in a sitting or two, but for anyone without my lightning-speed metabolism, it can feed a family.