Indonesia - Chicken Satay

Considered a national dish in Indonesia these meat skewers are cooked over coals by street vendors. I love street foods, my local town has a farmer's market on Thursdays where you can sometimes buy foods such as ostrich burgers, currywurst or noodles. It's great.

Ingredients:

Bamboo skewers
Chicken breast
6 garlic cloves
3 shallots
Oil
Water
1 teasoon coriander seeds
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 tsp chili flakes
1 teaspoon salt
200g peanuts
3 tablespoons brown sugar

I opted for dry roasted peanuts instead of regular peanuts that need to be blanched, skinned and then roasted. #lazycook

Assemble the chicken (cubed), shallots (chopped), 3 garlic cloves (chopped) coriander seeds, cumin, 1 tsp salt, 2 tablespoons of warm water and 1 1/2 tablespoons of oil in a bowl. Squidge the marinade into the chicken with your hands. Cover and put into the fridge for an hour or so.

Now you can make the peanut sauce. Chop up 3 more garlic cloves and saute in a bit of oil. Add the chili flakes and cook a bit more.

Put the peanuts, sugar, 1 teaspoon of salt, garlic and chili flakes in a food processor and chop until the peanuts are still a bit chunky but broken down too. Add 250ml of hot water to make a loose paste. Return to the pan at this point and heat up until the sauce bubbles. Remove from the heat and stir well.

Now thread the chicken onto the skewers. I didn't know what to do about the coriander seeds stuck to the chicken. They seem too brittle and hard to leave on so I had to pick them all off, which was a hassle. Then I had to ask Leigh to come and run the tap so I could wash my hands and she had a small strop because she was watching a Youtube video about Minecraft.

Grill or barbecue the chicken until done and then serve with the dipping sauce.

Leigh and Erin both liked the chicken but didn't want to try the sauce. Which is a shame because it was the best part. The chicken on it's own was nice, very garlicky and aromatic from the spices it marinated in. But dipped in the sauce it was delicious. The sauce was kind of like a peanut jam with the brown sugar it had in it. It stuck to the chicken as I dipped it in and had a lovely sweet peanut taste with the added kick of the chili flakes. My mouth was almost numb after eating from the vast quantities of garlic in this dish. It was worth it. :)

Coming up next - Guyanese Vanilla Fudge