Stick It!

Satay chicken or chicken satay, whichever, has been a favourite of mine for longer than I care to admit.  My first taste of it was when on a independently-organised field trip to Port Solent in Hampshire (with my Mum!) to collect information for my GCSE Geography individual study.  I did get full marks for the study and an A* overall, but I this suspect it wasn't entirely down to the satay... The memory of it, however, has stayed with me to this day, whereas my knowledge of reclaimed land in Hampshire and Holland has retreated somewhat!  I continued to dream of this, and to make it myself, through my university years and beyond.  Far superior to the mimsy, minuscule, ready made 'satay stix' you can buy, this is real food (and very popular with the children, who love any excuse to play with their food).  Can't think who they get it from...

Satay Chicken

This recipe is for 1kg of chicken breast meat, cut into long strips, which makes more than enough for four - with some leftover to eat cold as a snack.

1 medium onion, very finely chopped
1cm fresh ginger root, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 tbsp soy sauce
4 tbsp rapeseed oil (or sunflower, or vegetable)
juice of 1/2 a lime
2 tsp light muscovado sugar
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp chili powder (NOT powdered chillies, I mean the blended stuff!)
1/2 tsp turmeric

Stir all the prepared marinade ingredients together in a large bowl.  Mix the chicken (and see above) into the marinade, coating it thoroughly, then cover with clingfilm and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, but preferably longer.  I did these mid-morning, for supper tonight.

Soak some bamboo skewers (I used 12) in cold water for 30 minutes, then thread the chicken strips onto them in a wiggly fashion (you can do cubes, which is probably easier, but I like the wiggles).  Space them out on lightly oiled baking trays and bake at 200°c for around 25 minutes until cooked through and just starting to 'catch' in places.  Serve with this satay sauce...

Satay Sauce

100g dry-roasted peanuts
25g creamed coconut, finely chopped
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp tomato purée
1 tbsp rapeseed oil
2 tsp light muscovado sugar
1 tsp cornflour
1 tsp lemon juice
smidgen cayenne pepper

Put all the ingredients into a small pan  with 150ml water and bring gently to a simmer.  Cook for 5 minutes, then set aside to cool.  You can reheat it to serve, or put in straight into a serving dish.to eat at room temperature with the satay sticks.

To go with the chicken and the peanut sauce, I like nothing more than a bowl of steaming basmati rice and a simple salad, something to balance the taste of the rich peanut sauce; today I made a cucumber salad with radishes, only very lightly dressed.

Cath xx