Satay the quick and easy way

Satay is a Malaysian favorite but all other nations has its version of satay. Its a two part dish, the satay sticks and the satay sauce.

Way back in Malaysia, almost no one makes satay at home because its so easily available in the food stalls and hawker centers. They are often cheap at around $0.15 per satay stick. And this includes the satay sauce already!

My mom home cooks satay in a dish form to be eaten with hot steamed rice. This I will write about later.

Here, I have found them for $1 each with barely enough sauce to cover the meat sticks.

So, I've decided to make it as part of my 'dinner' reportoir.

As it turns out, marinating the meat requires an entire garden of asian herbs and spices and grounding them. Errr....no time...two feral kids who always seem hungry and always trying to wage a war between them accords me with really 'minus' minutes.

There are premixes too but I decided to just reconstruct so I can have it anytime.

I use all dry powdered products.

1 part garlic
1 part tumeric
1 part lemon grass
0.5 part ginger
1 tbls soy sauce
2-3 tbls brown sugar
2-3 tbls of oil
Dash of sesame oil

This pretty much seals the deal. I sometimes get a bit generous with the sugar and soy sauce depending how 'dark and sweet' i feel like. Malaysian satays are generally sweet...but I feel guilty!

Leaving it overnight ensures the powdered texture of the spices dissapears.

Then its oven time.

Doing it on the barbie is a luxury. So
Oven at 180c for 20-25mins cooks it.

Bask it with sesame oil before it goes into a preheated oven.

Tadaa.

I squeeze lemon juice on the satay as it comes out.

Now...the sauce.

Premixed satay sauce is handy. The best is Brahims satay sauce. It says just heat up...nope. Add tamarin juice, about 1 tbls and add peanut butter...about 1 tbls spoon too. If you want it creamier, add one more tbls but no more. Tadaaa. All done. The tamarin brings the spices out a bit more I think!

By the way, I am leaning towards chicken thigh meat or anyother meats with a bit of fat for this and cut it in long strips of 1cm ish versus cubes. Then thread it on a pre-soaked bamboo stick. Pre-soak it for 20 mins in boiling water. This makes sure the sticks are clean.

Enjoy. Aramaiti! (Cheers in indigenous Kadazan)