Satay Peanut Sauce Recipe

Peanut sauce (satay sauce or kacang sambal in the Malay language) is a sauce that is mostly used in Southeast Asian cuisine, primarily as a sauce for grilled satay. There are several different recipes for making peanut sauces, and this means that peanut sauces will taste differently depending on the recipe's country of origin. Typically, a home-made recipe will contain peanuts, coconut milk, soy sauce, and spices such as ginger. Some peanut sauces also contain fried onions, sesame seed, olive oil or peanut.

This peanut sauce recipe for grilled satay contained below is used in Singaporean and Malaysian cuisine.

Ingredients

8 dried chillies (soaked until soft). Remove seeds if you do not like it too hot.
2 cloves of garlic
1/2 cup shallots
4 candle-nuts or macadamia nuts.
1/4 cup cooking oil
1 cup peanuts (finely ground)
1/4 cup thin tamarind juice (get the tamarind paste, add a little warm water and squeeze the juice, strain)
1/4 cup evaporated milk diluted with 1 cup water (or light coconut milk).
1 tablespoon sugar
salt to taste

Procedure

Grind the chillies, garlic, shallots & candle-nuts together until very fine.

In a stir-fry wok, fry the ground ingredients in hot oil for 5 minutes.

Stir in ground peanuts and tamarind juice.

Bring to the boil.

Add milk and salt to taste and bring to the boil again.

Serve with grilled satay.

Satay Marinade Recipe

It's grilling season! This grilled satay recipe is a perfect one to try.

Satay (barbequed meat on skewers) is a popular dish in Southeast Asian countries like Malaysia and Singapore. The secret of a delicious satay is in the marinade. The recipe below is an authentic satay marinade used in Southeast Asia - the spices in the recipe are guaranteed to tenderize the meat and imbue it with fragrant flavors.

Ingredients

12 shallots
6 cloves garlic
2 inch fresh ginger
1 tsp peppercorn
1 tsp coriander seeds
2 tsp fennel seeds
2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp belacan (shrimp and chilli paste)
4 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp tumeric powder

Procedure

1. Grind up the shallots, garlic, ginger, white peppercorns, coriander seeds, fennel seeds, cumin seeds and belacan(shrimp and chilli paste) to make a paste.
2. Add water to the paste. Add the sugar and tumeric powder.
3. This is the satay marinade. Cover the meat with this marinade and leave till overnight in the refrigerator.
4. Skewer the marinated meat with bamboo sticks. Be sure to soak the bamboo sticks beforehand, so they do not burn when you begin to grill the meat. When grilling, turn the skewered meat over now and then. Each time you turn the skewered meat, baste them with the marinade.

Important Notes

The key of the marinating process is to marinate the meat for a long time, at least overnight and some people even marinate the meat in the refrigerator for up to three days. Also remember to slice the meat thinly so as to cook evenly, preventing overcooking on the grill.

In Southeast Asia, grilled satay is always accompanied with a peanut sauce dip, and fresh cut cucumbers. Click here for the peanut sauce recipe.

Simple Pita Bread Recipe

As my readers should know by now, I love pita bread. Pita bread is traditionally used in Middle Eastern and eastern Mediterranean cuisines, where the bread is a staple. The pita bread is a flat bread with a large pocket inside, which forms as it cooks quickly at high temperatures. The pocket is ideal for placing any of your favourite fillings - take your pick. I have even spread peanut butter and honey in a pita pocket as a pick-me-up snack.

But usually, people make sandwich pita rolls with meat and vegetables as in the Middle Eastern restaurants. I use it to make sandwich rolls and homemade pita chips, as well as occasionally dipping it in soups. I frequently buy fresh pita bread from the Middle Eastern grocery store. But as I have written about in the past, pita bread price inflation has made buying pita bread an expense. Because of that, I decided to attempt to make my own pita bread at home!

In the Middle East, pita is made in brick ovens, where very high heat can be achieved. It is very hard to duplicate in a home kitchen, but this easy recipe below adapted from a video I found, combined with high heat comes very close.



The dough is very easy to work with and comes together quickly. In fact, the only time-consuming part is cooking them. Each pita cooks quickly, but you have to be there the whole time to monitor their progress. The resulting pitas a delicious and well worth the effort.

Note: You can substitute 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour for whole wheat flour in this recipe without sacrificing anything in terms of the texture of the finished product.

Pita Bread Ingredients

1 package active dry yeast (2 1/2 tsp)
1 1/2 cups water, warm (105-115F)
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
3-4 cups all-purpose flour

Procedure

Combine sugar, water and yeast. Let stand for 10 minutes, until slightly foamy. Stir in salt and 3 cups of flour, until dough is smooth. Add remaining flour, a tablespoon or two at a time, mixing until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl into a ball. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, 4-5 minutes. Place in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise until doubled in size, 1.5 hours.


Turn on your broiler, leaving the rack in the center of the oven, and very lightly oil a baking sheet. Punch the dough down and divide it into 10 even pieces. Shape each into ball by grasping the corners of each piece and pinching them together. Cover the balls with a clean dish towel and allow the dough to rest, for 15 minutes so they will be easier to roll out. Roll out until balls form circles about 1/8 inch thick. Place on baking sheet (you may have to do them in groups of only 2 as in the picture) and broil for 2 minutes, until lightly browned. Flip over and broil again for 1.5 - 2 minutes, until browned. You may have to adjust the cooking time a bit, depending on how hot your broiler gets.Remove from oven and cool between kitchen towels to keep the pitas soft. Once they are cool, store in an airtight container.

This recipe made 10 pitas.

Singapore Popiah - Baked Spring Roll Recipe

I love spring rolls. But I do not like them when they are deep-fried, the way it is usually done in the restaurants. That's just too much grease for me - and you know they don't use the good oils in the restaurants. SoI decided to try and make my own spring rolls at home - by baking them! I tried this yesterday, and it turned out great. Not bad for my first try.

I adapted the recipe below from a traditional Singapore Popiah (spring roll) recipe; made some changes to it to suit my own tastes.
I used store-bought frozen spring roll wrappers - the product I used is from Singapore (see the picture). All you have to do is unfreeze the wrappers, by leaving it outside the freezer in its packaging for 25 mins. Then remove the packaging, and place a damp cloth over the wrappers. The wrappers will easily separate once you are ready to apply the fillings.

Spring Roll Filling Ingredients:

Ground lean meat (optional)
Diced Onions
Diced Carrots
Diced Red Cabbage
Diced Potatoes
Ginger
Garlic
Salt
Soy Sauce
Spice Powder
Olive Oil

Procedure:

Add the olive oil to a preheated skillet set over medium to medium-high heat and cook meat, onions, carrots, cabbage and potatoes with the garlic and ginger. Then add soy sauce and spice powder and mix well. I found that the red cabbage and soy sauce gave this filling recipe a nice smoky taste. Transfer to a bowl, and keep aside to cool. Pre-heat the oven to 400F.




Now peel off the first layer of the spring roll wrapper from the stack, and spread onto a clean surface.







Place the cooked filling in a diagonal fashion. Then I added fresh uncooked spinach.








Pull one side of the flap over to close the filling.









Fold the two ends as in the picture, and proceed to roll the wrapper, pulling over the flaps to close the roll.









Place the spring rolls on a baking dish, brush olive oil over the rolls. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown.