Three satays

So I was presented with a question:  what type of satay do you want to eat?  My answer was:  all of the three.  I will have the basic chicken satay, the most flavorful one that is sweet pork satay, and let's not forget tempe satay, a tried-and-true recipe that is simple to make with typical Indonesian spices--shallots, garlic, chili, candlenuts, and turmeric.

How do you make chicken satay?  I go to the basic, it's simply chicken pieces, preferably a mix between breast and thigh meats, cut into bite-sized portion.  Thread them into skewers and grill them just before eating.  The sauce will have to be peanut sauce, that is made of dry roasted peanuts, candlenuts, and some red chili; have them chopped very finely in a food processor.  Heat some cooking oil in a wok over medium heat and start sauteing the peanut mixture.  Add a little water at a time until the consistency of the mixture looks like tahini.  Add salt to taste.  Have ready Indonesian sweet soy sauce, sliced shallots or red onions, and sliced chili padi.  When the satays are done, mixed the peanut sauce with sweet soy sauce, some sliced onions, chili, and fried shallots on a plate.  Dip the satays in the sauce, and pull the juicy meat away from skewer slowly...you get the picture.

How about the sweet pork satay?  This need some preparation a day ahead.  The recipe is simple, really.  What needs to be achieved in the marinade is flavorful with herbal note and sweet enough.  Main ingredients will be shallots, garlic, coriander, cumin, galangal, lemongrass (white part only, not the fibrous part), palm sugar, a bit tamarind paste, sweet soy sauce, and some vegetable oil.  Mix all these ingredients in a food processor.  Add more brown or granulated sugar and salt because the taste should be sweet enough.  Thinly sliced Kaffir lime leaves are also added.  Rub the marinade over pork loin--boneless--that has been cut into bite-sized pieces, and leave them in refrigerate at least overnight.  This marinade is also excellent to use for beef satay.

Lastly, the tempe satay which I will write the recipe with exact ingredients and directions!  Don't know why I'm so excited with writing a recipe, I guess since I've been pretty vague about recipes in the last two paragraphs :)  It is again a super easy recipe, just make sure you get the regular tempe--just plain soybeans--not the ones with other grains added to it.


Spicy Tempe Satay

Makes about 8-10 skewers (4-5 tempe each skewer)

500 gr tempe, cut into 1-inch cube

250 ml + 4 tablespoons coconut milk

200 ml water

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Spice paste:

6 red chili

4 candlenuts

1 teaspoon roughly chopped turmeric

3 cloves of garlic

6 shallots

2 teaspoons roughly chopped lemongrass

1/2 teaspoon tamarind paste

1/2 teaspoon shrimp paste--terasi, in Bahasa Indonesia

2 teaspoons palm sugar or brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

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Combine tempe, coconut milk and the spice paste in a big pot or wok over medium heat.  Cook until the sauce thickens, stir occasionally.

Drain tempe from the sauce, thread into skewers.  Grill over medium heat in the gas or charcoal griller.  Brush with sauce while grilling.  The satay is done when the surface of tempe is slightly blackened.

Source:  Tahu & Tempe book by Primarasa

Bamboo Shoots with Dried Squid, Shrimp and Pork

There is no stopping my mom from cooking.  She is continually recreating familiar dishes after another, essentially flooding my palate with taste of childhood memories.  A spoonful of a particular dish could transport me back to my grandparents's house where I roamed in the yard, clad in tank top and shorts, playing in a hot humid Jakarta air.  Another dish would bring me back to our old house in a town west of Jakarta, eating dinner of simple meal.  Most of the time, our meal would be comprised of a vegetable dish, protein dish, and sometimes soup dish.  They were never pretentious meals, everything were almost always bought at the wet market in the early morning hours.  Prepared by my mom with a help from our loyal housekeeper in a small, modest kitchen, the dishes came out perfectly cooked, in my opinion nevertheless.  She would cook Indonesian, Chinese-Indonesian, or Dutch-Indonesian food; no matter what the type it was, our stomachs always thanked her for her wonderful cooking.

One of her dish was this bamboo shoots with dried squid, shrimp and pork.  I don't know exactly where she learned how to make it, most likely from her late mother-in-law, but it was an example of simple cooking resulting in a tasty dish. The way she cooks is never exact, everything is a guesstimate.  I love it when people ask her a recipe for certain dish, she would answer it unapologetically, it depends.  This will often throw people off, they are not sure if she's honest or not wanting to share the recipe.  But she cooks like that, the way I learn from her is by watching her make it; the same way she learnt from her mother-in-law.

For this dish, the shallots and garlic are ground into paste.  Bamboo shoots are sliced thinly, a bit share of pork shoulder are sliced thinly, a handful of peeled, deveined shrimp as well.  Take a small amount of whole dried squid, soak it in a bowl of water to soften it, then slice it thinly.  Stir-fry the shallot and garlic paste in a wok with enough vegetable oil over high heat.  Cook until it's quite soft and release its aroma.  Toss in the pork, shrimp, and squid; add salt and white pepper.  Pour in some water and cook over medium-low until pork is tender.  Taste to adjust the seasoning.  After a day or two, my mom will drain off the liquid, and stir-fry the dish again on a dry wok.  She will serve this with steamed rice and sambal, or red chili pepper paste.

See?  My recipe sounds just like hers :)