Satay

satay

One of the three opened jars of peanut butter in the pantry tastes blend. I have to find a way to use some of that before it expires. Since I cannot find ground peanuts, and I am too lazy to roast and grind peanuts, I decided to use that bottle to make some satay sauce.

So yeah, this is my creation, and not only does it work, the sauce is how I like it: sourish and thick. I added some cashew nuts to it just to have a bit more crunch.

Satay is one of the best street foods in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. The Indonesians tend to do their satay bigger and each stick has more meat to it. Satay in Malaysia and Singapore are smaller and to me, more compact in taste.

I find this a very rich dish, and ever since I was a kid, I can only eat five sticks of satay, no matter how good it is.  Here’s a chicken meat version, but you can use beef, pork and even lamb. The best satay has some fat in the stick. My favourite is mutton satay, while chicken is the safest choice as it is a more ‘forgiving’ meat.

Ingredients:

Meat:
1 kg Chicken thigh meat (cut into long strips)
200g Palm Sugar
1 tablespoon Rice Vinegar
2 tablespoon coriander powder
1 teaspoon salt

Marinade for meat : 
1 Big Onion
5 cloves Garlic
60g Satay powder, or grind 5 candlenuts , 70g galangal, 2 stalks of Lemon Grass (white part only) and 1 Chili to a paste

satay sauce

Sauce:
30g tamarind pulp (assam)
2 cups water
4 tablespoons Crunchy Peanut butter (or 1 cup of roasted, chopped peanuts + 1/4 cup sugar + 3/4 tsp salt)
3 tablespoons of oil
Salt to taste

Grind these:
3 candlenuts
1 teaspoon powder galangal
7 dried chillies
4 cloves Garlic
1 teaspoon balacan
1 Big Onion

Method:

Meat:

1. Soak the skewers in water for at least 10 minutes.
2. Grind the ingredients for the meat marinade.
3. Combine all the ingredients for meat and the marinade. Marinade the meat with this mixture for at least 2 hours.
4. Skewer meat, and then barbeque until meat is cooked and browned.

Sauce:

1. Heat a pot and add the oil.
2. Fry the ground mixture until fragrant.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil.  Continue to boil to thicken to the desired constituency.
4. Top with more nuts and serve with the meat, sliced cucumber and onions.