Daring Cooks do Satay

The January 2010 DC challenge was hosted by Cuppy of Cuppylicious and she chose a delicious Thai-inspired recipe for Pork Satay from the book 1000 Recipes by Martha Day.

This was a very interesting and indeed delicious recipe. Not a straight thai satay but none the worse for that.

I made two versions, chicken and pork, both were really lovely.. The pork was stronger and darker which I loved, where as the chicken was gobbled up by the smaller members of the family. The marinade gave the meat a lovely depth of flavour but still allowed each meat to come though.

Cuppy also gave us a peanut sauce recipe to go with the meat. My first attempt doing this curdled horribly. I think I cooked it too fast and too hot, but after much stirring it came back together. The second time I was more careful to heat it slowly and it worked fine.. yes it was good enough to make more than once. It is possible though that the sort of peanut butter I used had some effect as I used two different types. The first one was a fairly basic smooth and the second a whole-nut crunchy. Both were great and we ate the extra over the remaining rice.. Honestly I could just eat rice and sauce!

I can honestly say this was the quickest and easiest Daring recipe I have ever done but that is not at all a bad thing as it is one we will certainly be adding to our regular menus and many of them have been too complicated to cook regualrly around two small boys however much we might like them.

Recipes below are as Cuppy gave them to us.

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Pork Satay with Peanut Sauce

 Depending on the ingredients you select, 

Time Table

	Prep	Marinate	Cook
Pork	30 min.	4 – 24 hrs	20 min.
Beef/Lamb	30 min.	6 – 24 hrs	20 min.
Chicken	30 min.	2 – 12 hrs	10 – 15 min.
Vegetables	5 - 10 min.	2 hrs	5 - 10 min.
Tofu	5 - 10 min.	2 hrs	5 - 10 min.

Satay Marinade

1/2 small onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 T ginger root, chopped (optional) (2 cm cubed)
2 T lemon juice (1 oz or 30 mls)
1 T soy sauce (0.5 oz or 15 mls)
1 tsp ground coriander (5 mls)
1 tsp ground cumin (5 mls)
1/2 tsp ground turmeric (2-2.5 mls)
2 T vegetable oil (or peanut or olive oil) (30 mls)
1 pound of pork (loin or shoulder cuts) (16 oz or 450g)


Feeling the need to make it more Thai? Try adding a dragon chili, an extra tablespoon of ginger root, and 1 tablespoon (0.5 oz or 15 mls) of fish sauce. (I keep some premature (still green) dragon chili peppers in the freezer for just such an occasion.)
Directions:
1a. Cheater alert: If you have a food processor or blender, dump in everything except the pork and blend until smooth. Lacking a food processor, I prefer to chop my onions, garlic and ginger really fine then mix it all together in a medium to large bowl.
2a. Cut pork into 1 inch strips.
3a. Cover pork with marinade. You can place the pork into a bowl, cover/seal and chill, or place the whole lot of it into a ziplock bag, seal and chill.

Uncooked Chicken and Pork Satay

Chill Chart

Pork	Beef/Lamb	Chicken	Vegetables	Tofu (no oil)
4-8 hrs Up to 24 hrs	6-8 hrs Up to 24 hrs	1-4 hours Up to 12 hrs	20 min – 2 hrs Up to 4 hrs	20 min – 4 hrs Up to 12 hrs

Directions:
1b. Mix well.
2b. Cut pork into 1 inch thick strips (2-2.5 cm thick), any length.
3b. Cover pork with marinade. You can place the pork into a bowl, cover/seal and chill, or place the whole lot of it into a ziplock bag, seal and chill.

Cooking Directions (continued):
4. If using wooden or bamboo skewers, soak your skewers in warm water for at least 20 minutes before preparing skewers.
5. Gently and slowly slide meat strips onto skewers. Discard leftover marinade.*
6. Broil or grill at 290°C/550° F (or pan fry on medium-high) for 8-10 minutes or until the edges just start to char. Flip and cook another 8-10 minutes.
* If you’re grilling or broiling, you could definitely brush once with extra marinade when you flip the skewers.

 Peanut Sauce
3/4 cup coconut milk (6 oz or 180 mls)
4 Tbsp peanut butter (2 oz or 60 mls)
1 Tbsp lemon juice (0.5 oz or 15 mls)
1 Tbsp soy sauce (0.5 oz or 15 mls)
1 tsp brown sugar (5 mls)
1/2 tsp ground cumin (2.5 mls)
1/2 tsp ground coriander (2.5 mls)
1-2 dried red chilies, chopped (keep the seeds for heat)
1. Mix dry ingredients in a small bowl. Add soy sauce and lemon, mix well.
2. Over low heat, combine coconut milk, peanut butter and your soy-lemon-seasoning mix. Mix well, stir often.
3. All you’re doing is melting the peanut butter, so make your peanut sauce after you’ve made everything else in your meal, or make ahead of time and reheat.