These recipes are generally mixtures of recipes from a few of my favorite cookbooks. On the menu this weekend: Chicken or Pork Satay with a chili-peanut sauce and a traditional Som Tum (papya salad), served with jasmine rice. Enjoy
😀
Chicken or Pork Satay:
Total $$ damage: ~$35
Serves: 4
Ingredients:
Misc:
Bamboo skewers, soaked in water for at least an hour.
Meat:
4 bonless/skinless chicken breasts (aprox 1.5 lbs), or 1.5 lbs pork tenderloin filets
2 tsp softened light brown sugar
Marinade:
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp fennel seeds
1½ tsp coriander seeds
6 small yellow onions, chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 lemon grass stalk, trimmed
6 large cahew nuts
½ tsp ground tumeric
¼ tsp fish sauce
Peanut Sauce:
4 small yellow onions, sliced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
¼ tsp fish sauce
6 cashew nuts
2 lemon grass stalks, trimmed, lower 2 inches sliced
3 tbsp sunflower oil
2 tsp chilli powder
14 oz can of coconut milk (lite coconut milk is less fattening, but less flavorful)
5 tbsp tamarind water (if you can't find this, you can use 2 tbsp tamarind concentrate mixed with 3 tbsp of water)
1 tbsp softened light brown sugar
1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
Directions:
Cut chicken/pork long, thin strips, no thicker than 1/4" and place them into a bowl. Sprinkle with 2 tsp brown sugar and set aside.
Make your marinade: dry fry all seeds (cook in a small skillet or wok without oil for 5 minutes or so. Be careful not to burn them. This dries the seeds out and gets the flavor ready to be absorbed by the other ingredients of the marinade) and put them in a food processor untill they are a powder. Set aside. Chop the lower 2 inches of the lemon grass and put it in the food processor. Add the remainder of the ingredients for the marinade into the processor and process until contents become a fine paste. Scrape contents into the bowl with the meat and stir until all peices are completely covered with the paste. Cover with plastic wrap and let marinate for at least 4 hours (preferably overnight) in your fridge.
Prepare the Peanut Sauce: process the onions with the garlic and fish sauce. Add the nuts and the lower parts of the lemon grass stalks. Process until mixture becomes a fine paste. Heat the sunflower oil over medium-high heat in a wok and stir-fry the mixture for 3 minutes. Add the chilli powder and cook for a couple more minutes. Stir in the coconut milk (be careful, the oil will sputter) and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium low and add the tamarind water, brown sugar and peanut butter, stirring constantly. Allow sauce to reduce and thicken until it is saucy.
Thread the chicken/pork onto the bamboo skewers. Cook over a barbeque or under a broiler for about 5-7 minutes (untill the meat is golden and tender) brushing with peanut oil or sunflower oil occasionally if needed. Serve with hot peanut sauce.
Som Tum
Total $$: $25
Serves: 4
Ingredients
- 1 green papya
4 cloves garlic, chopped coarsely
3-4 fresh Bird's Eye chillis, chopped (seranos can be used if you can't find Bird's Eyes)
1 tbsp chopped shallots
½ tsp salt
8 large green beans, sliced lengthwise into 6 peices each
8 cherry tomatoes
fish sauce
1 tbsp granulated white sugar
juice of 1 lime (approx. 1½ tbsp)
4 tbsp crushed roasted, unsalted peanuts.
3 cups jasmine rice, prepared.
Directions:
Half the papyas and scrape the seeds out. Peel the skin using a carrot peeler (swivel vegetable peeler). Shred the flesh with a coarse grater.
Put the garlic, shallots, sliced chillis and salt into a large mortar and grind to a paste with a pestle. Add the shredded papya, little by little and pound until it becomes slightly limp and soft. Add sliced green beans and tomato wedges and crush them lightly while stirring. Add lime juice and sugar, stir. Flavor the salad to taste with the fish sauce (be careful, this stuff is very strong, use ¼ teaspoon at a time). Serve over jasmine rice and sprinkled with crushed peanuts.