Chicken Satay Sauce

Ruu_Old

Hope this is in the right forum. I was wondering is Chicken in Satay Sauce actually Chinese or is it Thai or somewhere else? Been trying to find some sauce in town, i did find thai peanut satay sauce, but its a little spicy than i remember. Thanks in advance

Alun

Satay, or Saté, sauce is Indonesian I believe. I have a recipe from the time I was in Holland (where Indonesian restaurants reign!) if you'd like? Generally, any Saté sauce I've ever had outside of Holland has been pretty bland, but if you make your own you can regulate that yourself by modifying the amount of Sambal Oelek (hot chili sauce) you put in it. I like it hot :eek:

Ruu_Old

yeah put up the recipe when you get a chance, danke

bonkey

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satay will give you a bit o' background on it....unsurprisingly

One interesting thing to note about Satay - many people seem to assume that its a peanut-flavoured marinade/coating. It ain't, but its often served with a peanut-based dipping-sauce.

Having said that...its something I don't have a good tried-and-tested recipe for, so I'm eagerly awaiting Alun's recipe too.

jc

Alun

bonkey wrote:

One interesting thing to note about Satay - many people seem to assume that its a peanut-flavoured marinade/coating. It ain't, but its often served with a peanut-based dipping-sauce.

Yep, there is an entirely different marinade for marinading the meat in before skewering and grilling/barbecuing. The sauce is either for dipping, or in Holland at least, more usually liberally spread over the chicken satay's. It's also quite delicious with chips too, and is available in most Dutch chippers. Try it, you'll like it

Anyway, here goes with the recipe. It's for quite a large quantity, so you may have to scale down ...

1 jar peanut butter (crunchy or smooth according to taste)
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 small tin tomato puree
chicken stock (how much depends on how thick you want it)
a dash of ketjap manis (Indonesian equivalent of soy sauce, can be bought in some Asian stores)
1 tsp (or more, depending on taste) sambal oelek (hot chili sauce, available in Asian stores)

optional extras:
1 or 2 tsp brown sugar
ginger powder, laos (ground galangal), ketoembar (ground coriander) koenjit (ground cumin)

- very finely chop the onion and garlic and fry in a little oil in a separate pan
- slowly melt the peanut butter in a pan
- add the stock bit by bit, and stir until you have a sauce of the consistency you want, careful! it'll spit!
- add all the other ingredients, stir and leave to simmer very gently for about 15 minutes

That's it! The only snags are some of the ingredients. Sambal Oelek is fairly easy to find. The Ketjap isn't that easy to find, but I think I saw some in the shop (Asian Food Co.?) on Mary street. At a pinch you could probably substitute soy. Laos is ground galangal which is a root somewhere between ginger and turmeric, but without the colour.

Some people prefer to use milk instead of stock, and some even use thin coconut milk, it's very much a matter of taste, but the above recipe comes quite close to what you'll find in Indonesian restaurants in Holland. That doesn't necessarily mean that it's anything like what's available in Indonesia itself though! Anything I've had here that calls itself satay sauce has been quite disappointing.

Eet smakelijk!

Shabadu

An Indonesian chef I used to work used the following:

He'd toast his own peanuts & smash em.

Garlic, sautéed.

Sambal oleck.

Fresh galangal root grated.

Katjup manis.

Shrimp paste.

Stock, I seem to remember him using fish stock, I could be imagining this though.

Basically the same methodology as Alun's only he'd whiz it a bit with the gun. Only major difference is no tomato purée and no onion, and with salted shrimp. He used to say every family in Indonesia had it's own recipe for it.

Alun

Yep, that's the problem ... this recipe I got from an Indonesian woman I knew in Holland, but like you say there's dozens of variations. Using peanut butter instead of smashing your own peanuts probably results in a thicker sauce, although blitzing it with a gun would probably help there. In Holland you can buy ready made satay sauce in a jar, just mix with water, which is OK if you're in a hurry.

BTW, I just found this site www.hollandwinkel.nl which looks interesting for getting hold of not only some of the spices and stuff, but also all other kinds of Dutch goodies

ripo

great thanks guys, to get the real taste of chips and sate (dutch style) should i use the milk or chicken stock?

Minder

Shabadu wrote: »

An Indonesian chef I used to work used the following:

He'd toast his own peanuts & smash em.

Garlic, sautéed.

Sambal oleck.

Fresh galangal root grated.

Katjup manis.

Shrimp paste.

Stock, I seem to remember him using fish stock, I could be imagining this though.

Basically the same methodology as Alun's only he'd whiz it a bit with the gun. Only major difference is no tomato purée and no onion, and with salted shrimp. He used to say every family in Indonesia had it's own recipe for it.

The shrimp paste is key to a good peanut sauce - wrap it in several layers of tinfoil and toast it in a gas flame before adding it to the sauce.

For an excellent guide to Indonesian cooking, have a flick through Cradle of Flavor: Home Cooking from the Spice Islands of Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia by James Oseland. Brilliant book.

Alun

ripo wrote: »

great thanks guys, to get the real taste of chips and sate (dutch style) should i use the milk or chicken stock?

I normally use a bit of each, but be careful not to put too much in or it'll become too runny.

If you make some and you're feeling particularly brave you can try another Dutch chipper speciality, the "patatje oorlog" or "chips war style", which is chips covered in sate sauce, mayonnaise, ketchup (optional) and finely chopped raw onions. I'm salivating even writing this