Satay

Today we ate chicken satay. I haven't cooked this for ages, mostly because I've been too busy cooking lots of other yummy things, and also that peanut butter is not that common on the supermarket shelves here in Austria. But today I went hunting and found it close by.

This recipe is a slight adaptation of my Father-in-law's recipe. He is generally known as a wiz in the kitchen and cooks especially-great Asian food, which is strange given he originally comes from Austria. I can imagine that there were not too many Asian restaurants here 50 years ago.

What you'll need

For the sauce
100 - 150ml coconut milk
200g peanut butter, crunchy or smooth, depending on what you prefer. I used crunchy in this recipe.
I medium onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped or minced
2 tsp ginger, minced
1 tsp chilli powder (or chopped fresh chilli if you'd like it spicier)
1 tsp white sugar (or whatever sugar you have)
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tbs soy sauce
2 tbs rice white vinegar (substitute with white vinegar)
1 tsp oil
2 tbs fresh mint, chopped

For the chicken
4 medium chicken breasts, cut into approximately 5cm cubes
20 bamboo skewers, soaked in water
1 tbs vegetable oil or spray oil

Alternatively, you could also use pork, beef, firm tofu or vegetables such as potato, mushroom, capsicum and cherry tomato on your skewers.

What to do

Heat oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and turn heat to low. This is important as you do not want the onion or garlic to go brown. Stir until the onion and garlic is soft and translucent. Add peanut butter and stir until it melts. Turn off the heat.

Add all other ingredients except coconut milk and mint. Stir well to dissolve. Once you've done this, add the coconut milk and stir until combined. Set aside. At this stage, the sauce will be quite liquid, but once it cools a little more it will become thicker. If you feel that the sauce is too thick for you when you come to serve it, stir through a little warm water.

You do not need to reheat the sauce to serve this dish, as you will pour it over the cooked meat at the end. However, IF you want to serve the sauce warm, be very careful. If you 'boil' this sauce it will separate and not look very nice. Reheat over very low heat and stir it. Because of the sugar it will also burn easily.

Thread the chicken onto the soaked skewers. I used four pieces of chicken per skewer. (The little people helped with this step and surprisingly did a great job!) Brush with the oil or  use some spray oil.  I grilled mine in the oven for about 15 minutes - cooking in a pan is difficult with the long skewers - turning once during cooking.

Once chicken is cooked (you can check one of the skewers to make sure) and brown, remove from the oven and arrange on a plate. Spoon over as much (or as little) sauce as you prefer, sprinkle with the fresh mint, and some fresh chopped chilli if you like. We had ours with some steamed rice (to soak up the sauce) and salad.

A little person wanted to help with the photography tonight. Here's the result.