Satay is a popular delicacy in South East Asia. In Malaysia, satay stalls can easily be found in many hawker centers, on the street as well as at night markets a.k.a pasar malam in Malay. Satay is a dish where well marinated meat skewers are grilled and served with peanut sauce. It's usually accompanied by diced cucumbers, onions and ketupat (rice cake). In Melbourne, a number of Malaysian restaurants such as Paparich, The Mamak and Little Ipoh offer scrumptious satays in their menu. There's also a famous Indonesian satay restaurant called Kedai Satay in the city and South Yarra.
Making your own satay from scratch require quite substantial effort. The list of spices/ingredients for the marinade and the peanut sauce actually put me off. However, I did come out with homemade chicken satay in the end. And it was easy because I used a ready made satay making kit!
Well, I stumbled upon this box of satay kit when I was browsing the Malaysian/Singaporean food aisle at Hometown Asian Supermarket on Elizabeth Street. This ready made satay marinade and peanut sauce are actually from Singapore, produced by Prima Taste. It has no MSG too. Thus, I thought of giving it a try.
Since I was going to make satay, I bought a packet of Nona brand ketupat rice too. There are multiple mini rice packets that could be boiled into ketupat (rice cakes).
Making satay suddenly becomes so simple thanks to the ready made marinade and satay sauce. One just need to follow the instructions on the packet. I did add a pinch of salt to the chicken though. Besides that, I used the oven's grill function to grill the satay instead of using an electrical grill or BBQ set as it is easier to clean.
What's the verdict you may ask. It was amazingly good! I reckon the satay made from using Prima Taste's marinade and peanut sauce is comparable to Little Ipoh's. Voila! I could make satays too!
Recipe:
(2 servings)
1 box of Prima Taste satay kit - contains marinade, satay sauce mix and peanut paste.
400g chicken thighs
A pinch of salt
Vegetable oil for brushing the satay
4 Nona mini rice packets
1 cucumber
150ml water for making the sauce as per instruction
Bamboo sticks (the number of sticks required is dependent on how big each satay you make. The box says use 350g of meat for 24 sticks. I only managed to make 10 sticks using 400g of chicken!)
1. Cut chicken into small cubes. Marinate the chicken with the marinade from the box and a pinch of salt. Keep in the fridge overnight.
2. Cook the mini rice packets as per instructions on the packet and cut into cubes. It takes 60-90 mins. So make sure you start this earlier as it needs to be cooled before you could cut them into cubes.
3. Cut cucumber into cubes and keep aside.
4. Thread the chicken meat using the bamboo sticks. Brush oil on each side of the chicken sticks.
5. Grill in pre-heated oven at 220-240c for 5mins. Flip each satay stick and grill for another 3-4 mins at 220-240c. Adjust the temperature from time to time so that the satay is not too burnt.
6. While grilling the satay in the oven, start making the peanut sauce by following the instructions on the box.
7. Serve satay with peanut sauce, ketupat (rice cakes) and cucumbers.
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