According to my cookbook, "satay" is the Indonesian word for “skewer.” But I don't have a grill, and even if I did, skewering thin pieces of meat for twenty people is far too time consuming. However, I still use the word 'satay' because not only does it involve skewered meat, it also implies a fragrant peanut sauce.
Here is how I made it for a crowd. If you follow normal cookbook instructions, it takes far too long. The normal way, you mix everything together except for the peanut butter, let the meat marinade in it, take the meat out of the marinade and grill it, heat up the marinade and add peanut butter. It’s one thing to get one pound of beef in and out of a marinade. It’s quite another to fish around for three or four pounds of beef, not to mention finding the refrigerator space. Oh, and did I mention time? I had no time to let it marinade, so I skipped the marinating part all together. I general I support marinades. Marinades are like PBS. Very good but everything seems to move slowly and take too long.
Ingredients
Serves 12-16
The Meat Group
3-4lbs. beef, thinly sliced
peanut oil
salt
The Onion Group
4 onions, peeled and cut into four pieces each, hairy parts discarded
1 standard grocery store size chunk of ginger, peeled
2 jalapeños, tops sliced off (if you don't have fresh hot peppers of some sort, use crushed red pepper)
12 cloves of garlic, peeled, ends chopped off
The Saucy Group
3/4 C sesame oil
3/4 C soy sauce
1 C ketchup
1/2 C brown sugar
Peanut Butter!
1.5 C peanut butter (natural - this is no time for Peter Pan or Jif)
1) Throw all the ingredients from the Onion Group into a food processor and pulse until finely chopped.
2) Mix all of the ingredients from the Saucy Group and then pour over the now finely chopped mess of the Onion Group. Stir with a fork.
3) Heat the peanut oil in a sauce pan and then add a reasonable amount of beef. Add a spoonful or two of the Saucy Onion stuff. Cook until not-pink, then remove from pan and place in separate bowl. Repeat until all the meat is cooked. You may want to sprinkle some kosher salt on the meat once you’ve removed it from a pan. I don’t like to sprinkle it on in the pan because it makes dishwashing a complete nightmare.
4) Pour remaining saucy onion stuff into a small pot and let simmer for 5 minutes. Add peanut butter to taste. Put peanut sauce in a bowl and serve while it’s hot!
Satay is served with rice. I cooked up some broccoli with turmeric, coconut milk and diced tomatoes, to continue the Indonesian theme. However, you could just as tastily (and much more easily) set out fresh spinach or steamed broccoli.
3 comments:
I went out to a thai restaurant yesterday and had some skewers in peanut sauce. I imagine they are what you describe here. They were delicious and I wanted to figure out how they made them. I will certainly be trying this recipe out, except that peanut butter is extremely difficult to come by in spain. I wonder if I could blend peanuts for a similar effect, do you know?
I doubt that rural Indonesians use jars of Trader Joe's peanut butter, so you ought to try. It's probably more authentic. Even if it doesn't have the same consistency, I think it would taste really good. You might want to add some peanut oil for smoothness.
what?? no trader joes in indonesia?! Good to know we arent the ONLY backward country in the world.
Post a Comment