Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Daring Cooks Challenge: Pork Satay with Peanut Sauce

This month's Daring Cooks Challenge was a delicious recipe for satay, an Indonesian dish of marinated meat, threaded on skewers and either grilled or broiled, usually served with a peanut dipping sauce. We could choose the meat we wanted to use, as well as the sauce. I chose pork and the traditional Peanut Sauce. This was a great recipe, easy to execute, and while I would normally choose the grilling technique, the sub-freezing weather made the broiler seem much friendlier!

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.



Pork Satay with Peanut Sauce

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.

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

Faster (cheaper!) marinade:


2 T vegetable oil (or peanut or olive oil) (1 oz or 30 mls)
2 T lemon juice (1 oz or 30 mls)
1 T soy sauce (0.5 oz or 15 mls)
1 tsp ginger powder (5 mls)
1 tsp garlic powder (5 mls)
1 tsp cayenne pepper (5 mls)

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.




4 comments:

  1. The way you arranged your platter for serving a group was very clever! It looks delish and I will be keeping that serving style in mind.

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  2. Thanks, Sarah! This was so delicious...my pictures don't do it justice! I really need to work on this picture thing.

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  3. Glad your challenge worked out well...and it really does look yummy!

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  4. Your pictures are so beautiful and that first one is especially good. All that satay looks delicous well one on this challenge. Cheers from Audax in Sydney Australia.

    Great to hear it was so simple easy and tasty.

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