Thursday, March 01, 2007

Beef & Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce

Satay is an all time favourite with almost anyone. I decided to experiment and create my own combination of marinade and satay sauce. It also gave Mr Redneck a chance to test out the new barbecue. Needless to say he was pleased with the performance of the bbq - it passed the satay test without burning the sticks or the satay! The satay and sauce were good and Mr Redneck said it was by far the best and most authentic satay sauce I have ever made and it tasted like those we had from Malaysia.

Don't let the long list of ingredients deter you. The tedious part in making satay is the stringing of the meat to the sticks but Mr Redneck does a wonderful job of this.


Makes 21 chicken & 31 beef satay

Ingredients
600 gm chicken breast
400 gm porterhouse beef

Marinade
1 Tbsp ground coriander
1 Tbsp ground cumin
1 Tbsp ground fennel
1 tsp ground tumeric
3 stalks lemongrass, thinly sliced
1 Tbsp garlic flake or fresh garlic
1 Tbsp sugar
½ tsp salt

Method
1. Soak 50-60 satay skewers in cold water for at least 2 hours to prevent them from burning during grilling.

2. Cut the meat into small strips about 2" long and 3/4" wide.

3. Grind marinade ingredients until fine and mix with the meat to marinate overnight.

4. Thread 4-5 pieces of the meat onto the skewer.




5. Grill over a charcoal fire or barbecue, brushing occasionally with oil using a brush made from lemongrass.


6. Serve hot with satay sauce, chunkily diced cucumber, onions and ketupat (rice cake).


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Satay Sauce

1Tbsp tamarind paste soaked in 4 Tbsp water, squeeze and strain
2 Tbsp oil
200 ml coconut milk
350 ml water
2 Tbsp sugar
salt to taste
300 gm roasted peanuts

Spice Paste:
4 dried chillies (soaked)
1 tsp Baba chilli powder (optional)
200 gm onions/shallots
4 cloves of garlic
5 candlenuts
3 stalks lemon grass
4 thin slices galangal
2 Tbsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
½ tsp ground fennel

Method
1. Blend the spice paste until fine. Whizz peanuts in food processor until finely chopped.

2. Heat oil over medium heat and fry spice paste (5-10 minutes) until fragrant.

3. Add tamarind liquid, coconut milk, water and sugar and simmer gently for 5-10 minutes. (At this point, if you prefer to have a more refined and smoother texture, pour the sauce into the blender, give it a whirr and return it back to the wok)

4. Add peanuts and salt to taste.

5. Scoop the satay sauce into individual bowls to dip the satay, cucumber and onions.

Tip
1. Salted peanuts can be used in place of unsalted peanuts but reduce salt to the satay sauce accordingly.
2. Uncooked satay freezes very well.
3. The cooked satay sauce can be frozen in ice cubes for a quick and easy meal of satay.
4. It is better to buy good quality beef cut for satay. The porterhouse and sirloin beef cooks faster and is nice and tender. The total cost of meat for this round of satay came to $12 but was definitely worth it.

9 Comments:

Anonymous said...

Yum...this looks so delicious and mouth watering. Thanks, I have to try out your recipe. I’m always unsuccessful with my satay sauce, it usually turn out like a beige color after I add the coconut milk to it..not sure why this happens? I would like to achieve the right color like yours. When you say to fry the spice paste till it is fragrant (5-10mins), do this mean that the onions have turn mostly dark golden brown? Thanks.

Sinner said...

Hi Sharon

welcome to my blog.

The spice paste changes colour but not to a dark golden brown (unfortunately I only have a picture of the frying in progress but not the finished paste). When it is ready the paste quantity is reduced and you can see oil coming out.

Previously all my curries didn't have that nice reddish colour. I find this is due to the quantity of chillies used. The chilli I use is very spicy so cannot put a lot but I add Baba chilli powder which gives me that nice red colour without being overly 'hot'.

If you are not too fuss about the amount of oil in cooking, add a bit more when frying the paste and you will get a nice oil layer as well.

Anonymous said...

sinner,
Thank you for the great tips. Previously, I was frying till golden brown bcos I was waiting for it to exude oil but it never did. Now, I realised that I have been doing it wrongly. I have no problem with using more oil :). So I will use more oil to fry the paste as you suggested. How much should I use? I will also try to look out for Baba brand chili powder. You have been really helpful. Thanks again.

Sinner said...

Sharon

I found out recently that frying on the gas stove gave me a better result. I actually see a little bit of oil coming out of the paste. Previously like you (I use to cook mine on a ceramic stove), I was also waiting for oil to come out - which never did !

You can try 4-5 Tbsp oil. I use the bare minimum I can get away with.

I like using the Baba chilli powder as I can taste and add while I am cooking the satay sauce. Far easier to add than to try and reduce the spiciness.

I do hope you succeed. Don't give up.

Anonymous said...

Thank you once again for your help. oic..get better result when using gas. Learn something new today. Dreaming of a gas stove but in the meantime, I will try out your recipe. Thanks for the encouragement! :)

KY said...

Hi Sinner,

Now that the weather is warmer I cannot wait to try your satay recipe! I have some questions though:

* If I want to make only chicken satay can I substitute the 400gm beef with chicken breast with everything else remaining the same?
* Have you tried using a mixture of chicken breast and thighs before?
* How long does it take to thread 52 satay sticks? (Just to have an idea so I can plan my time.)
* What's the difference in taste between the sauce recipe in this post and the one in the 'Satay' post?

Thanks for your time.

KY

Sinner said...

Hi KY,

1. Yes you can substitute the 400gm beef with chicken or even pork, with everything else remaining the same. Or you can use a 1 kg combination of various meat.

2. I have only ever used chicken breast as the places that sells thighs here are very expensive. But do go for a combination if the price is right.

3. Mr Redneck says not long - maybe ½ hour if threading by himself.

4. The satay sauce in this post is more 'Malaysian' in taste.

More than happy to help. This summer for us has been great. We had satays almost every weekend. Feels just like being back home eating at the hawker stalls :)

Would love to hear your feedback.

ahmad said...

looks really delicious and close to the original recipe, two thumbs up!!

Sinner said...

Thanks ahmad !

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