Sate

Sate or Satay is a barbeque dish not fried dish.
Ordering sate in chinese restaurant or even Thai restaurant in Edinburgh is usually a no no for me as most of them deep fried the sate. So a couple of months ago, I decided to learn how to make Javanese Sate the serves with Kecap Manis Sauce instead of peanut sauce. After spending days googling recipes and some disastrous try out, I finally managed to cook a Sate dish that is close enough to the one I used to eat back in Indonesia. I even (somehow) found out how to make the Pickled Cucumber!! Hooray for internet.

Ingredients:
Serves 2
500 grams of Chicken, cut into small bite sizes cubes.

Marinate: 

• 2 tsp of ground coriander seeds
• 2 tsp of ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp of ground cumin
• 1 tsp of ground candle nuts
• 2 red chilies, finely chopped.
• 3 cloves of shallot (1 red onion), finely chopped. 
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
  
• 1/2 tsp of salt
• 1 tbs of oil (please don't use olive oil)
• Juice of one lime (chuck in the squeezed lime too if you want)
  
• a dash of white pepper
• Lots and lots of Kecap Manis (Indonesian Sweet Soja Sauce)

Mix all the ingredients together.
Marinate the chicken for at least 3 hours before grilling, for best result leave them marinated for a night in the fridge.

If you're cooking in the summer then finding bamboo skewers is dead easy but finding one in winter time is pretty challenging. You're best option will be your local chinese supermarket who will have bamboo skewers all year long. To avoid burnt sticks, soak the skewers in water for an hour before grilling (longer if you have time)

Stick the meat cubes onto the skewers, I tend to put about 5-6 cubes per sticks. It all depends on  how long your skewer is and how small your meat cubes are.

Since I don't own a charcoal grill, I cook mine on an oven grill. Preheat the grill and then grill them until they're done. Don't worry if you see some burnt bits on the meat, it's all good. While grilling, baste the sate with marinate which has been mixed with some more kecap manis and juice of a whole lime. I baste my sate so frequently while grilling, they usually come out quite sticky and juicy (yummy!). Grill til the sates cook all the way through and caramelized.

My favorite sate sauce is Kecap Manis Sauce, it's sweet and sour.

Ingredients for the Sauce:

• 2 cloves of Shallots (1 red onion), finely sliced.
• 1 tbs of brown sugar
• Juice of a whole lime
• 1 kaffir leave (if you happen to have the fresh one then slice it finely, but 1tsp of dried one will do too)
• A pinch of garlic salt
• 3 chilies, finely chopped. 
• Lots and lots of kecap manis
• 1 tbs of oil
• A handfull of peanuts, fried / roasted and finely chopped.

Mix everything together

Acar Ketimun (Pickled Cucumber)

This side dish is sooo easy to make, it's so easy to go wrong (at least for me)

Ingredients:
1 whole cucumber, cut julienne style
2 shallots (1 red onion), thinly sliced.
1 red chili, cut in half.
7 tsp of sugar
10 tsp of white vinegar.

Mix all the ingredients together in a tube with lid (I used an old pasta jar) except the cucumbers. Stir it all up til the sugar disolves. Then add the sliced cucumbers.
Put the lid on and keep it in the fridge for at least a night before serving.

Serve Sate with Acar Ketimun and Lontong (Rice Cake) or Rice