Last week, I suddenly had a craving for satay. I searched through cookbooks I brought from Malaysia and found Kajang satay. Immediately I set to work. Of course, as usual, I was lacking ingredients. But being used to such situation, I began substituting or skipping all the ingredients that I did not have.
Main ingredient: Chicken (of course the thighs or legs)
Next, I saw lemon grass. The space between my brows creased. This is one of the ingredients that is hard to get here. It is not something that I can just run out and cut a stalk or two from the neighbor's house. Nor can I run to the nearby store to buy them. In other words, they are hard to come by here. Immediately after lemon grass, another ingredient that made my frown worst was galangal. Galangal is almost non existence here. Unlike lemon grass, which I can buy in the next town, galangal is not something that I can get hold of easily.
But satay without these two essential ingredients is no longer satay. I decided, however it turns out, just let it be. So, I substituted lemon grass with daun limau purut and galangal with ginger. Luckily, I have the rest of the spices, including assam paste (tamarind). I ground and mixed all the ingredients together to make the marinade. The chicken was cut into small chunks thrown into the marinade. and left it overnight.
The next day, I eagerly got myself readied and began working on the sauce. I skip the peanuts just because peanuts here doesn't taste good. The usual peanuts brands I can get are Planters or some generic brands. So, I wanted to come out with something without using peanuts. And what I made was more of a sambal sauce. Oh well. It was not the best but it didn't turn out too bad.
Grilling the meat:
After I skewered all the meat, I heated up the broiler of my oven and turned up heat for the grill pan. Using these two methods, I began grilling the satay with a splash of oil. Coconut fat would have been perfect, but that is another thing that is hard to come by.
All in all, the satay didn't turn out too bad, I must say. I only regret the sauce. I guess, I will need more experiments to come up with something more acceptable.
Main ingredient: Chicken (of course the thighs or legs)
Next, I saw lemon grass. The space between my brows creased. This is one of the ingredients that is hard to get here. It is not something that I can just run out and cut a stalk or two from the neighbor's house. Nor can I run to the nearby store to buy them. In other words, they are hard to come by here. Immediately after lemon grass, another ingredient that made my frown worst was galangal. Galangal is almost non existence here. Unlike lemon grass, which I can buy in the next town, galangal is not something that I can get hold of easily.
But satay without these two essential ingredients is no longer satay. I decided, however it turns out, just let it be. So, I substituted lemon grass with daun limau purut and galangal with ginger. Luckily, I have the rest of the spices, including assam paste (tamarind). I ground and mixed all the ingredients together to make the marinade. The chicken was cut into small chunks thrown into the marinade. and left it overnight.
The next day, I eagerly got myself readied and began working on the sauce. I skip the peanuts just because peanuts here doesn't taste good. The usual peanuts brands I can get are Planters or some generic brands. So, I wanted to come out with something without using peanuts. And what I made was more of a sambal sauce. Oh well. It was not the best but it didn't turn out too bad.
Grilling the meat:
After I skewered all the meat, I heated up the broiler of my oven and turned up heat for the grill pan. Using these two methods, I began grilling the satay with a splash of oil. Coconut fat would have been perfect, but that is another thing that is hard to come by.
All in all, the satay didn't turn out too bad, I must say. I only regret the sauce. I guess, I will need more experiments to come up with something more acceptable.
