Chicken Satay

Chicken Satay has been a stalwart crowd-pleaser in my repertoire for many years - especially during BBQ season. I spent several years as a kid in Holland, where Satay and Pindasaus (Peanut Sauce) is such a major part of the culinary culture that they serve it in snackbars. They even pour the moorish peanut sauce over chips: you really have to taste it to know how amazing that combination is.

Obviously Satay doesn't originate in the Netherlands. Its popularity is due to the influence of former Dutch colony Indonesia and can be seen in the abundance of Indonesian restaurants with their Rijstafels and dishes such as Nasi Goreng.

My peanut sauce is very simple, and very much inspired by the Dutch version found in fast food joints.

As for the Satay itself, I'm not sure if any country can claim absolute ownership. I've sampled beautifully grilled meat-on-stick-combos in Thailand and Singapore, though it's perhaps even more at home in Malaysia and Indonesia. I've also heard that the word satay comes from a Chinese phrase for "three pieces" (of meat).

And there are more recipes for the dish than countries that serve it. Some use coriander; curry paste; coconut milk; lemongrass... Mine is pretty straightforward, though I've tried others that are very tasty. Including some of the 16 different versions in Steven Raichlen's magnificent Barbecue Bible. If you like grilled meat buy one of his books.

Anyway, here's my version:

Chicken Satay:

400g Chicken cut into bite-sized chunks (thigh is my preference, but breast is fine)
4 cloves of Garlic
Inch long piece of Ginger
1 Teaspoon of Turmeric powder (gives it the characteristic yellow colour, fresh turmeric would be even better)
1 Teaspoon sugar
1.5 Tablespoons Soy Sauce (or Fish Sauce if you prefer)
Healthy glug of Vegetable oil
Pinch of Salt
A generous grind of Black Pepper

Mash up the garlic, ginger, salt, pepper, sugar and turmeric in a big pestle and mortar, or blender. Add the oil, soy sauce. Marinade the chicken pieces in this mixture for as long as you please - anywhere between 30 minutes to a few hours. Put it in the fridge if its more than half an hour.

When you're ready to go thread the chicken onto wooden skewers that have been soaked in water so they don't catch fire.



For best results cook on a BBQ, but if it's a sub-zero February night like tonight you can also get a great result indoors. Option 1 is using a griddle pan. My preference is Option 2: use a grill. Heat it to absolute smoking-hot-maximum and put the Satay on a tray, using tinfoil to cover the skewers.



Then put them as close to the grill elements as you dare without touching - no more than one inch away. This isn't for the faint-hearted and will fill your kitchen with smoke, but the results are worth it.

Cook until the top is nice and crusty, turn over and cook the other side. Check that the chicken is cooked through - if not leave it in a warm oven for a few minutes until it's good to eat.

Satay Sauce:

This sauce is so great you'll never want to eat any other Satay again. And it's embarrassingly easy. This has been a trademark dish of mine for a long time, and I'm actually in two minds about giving it away...

2 mounded tbs Peanut Butter - smooth or crunchy. Whatever floats your boat.
1 tbs Ketchup - I know. You're thinking "Ketchup???!". Don't forget the word Ketchup comes from the Indonesian Ketjap Manis.
1 tbs Soy Sauce
1 tsp to 1 tbs Sambal Oelek (ground chili paste in vinegar). You could also mince up a chili or use chili flakes plus a touch of vinegar.
1 tsp sugar if you think the sauce isn't sweet enough - depends on the peanut butter you're using.

Mix the ingredients together in a saucepan over a low heat and add hot water from a kettle to thin it out to a good sauce consistency. Heat through in the pan, taste for seasoning, and you're done.

I served my Satay with a Thai flavoured salad of crunchy vegetables, lime, fish sauce and chili,

Impromptu Prawn Curry

Friday night, no real food shopping options in the vicinity of my office... so I ended up at home with an end-of-week beer in my hand and nothing to eat.

Nothing of great interest in the fridge, but there was a bag of frozen tiger prawns in the freezer. I've made Gambas al Pil Pil (Spanish style prawns in chili garlic olive oil) on many occasion, including from frozen prawns, but wasn't really in the mood for them tonight.

The only other dish I could think of, given the limited ingredients in my fridge, was some kind of bodge-job curry. Now, I'll freely admit that Indian food isn't my forte. I'm much more comfortable with French, British, Chinese, Thai, Spanish... pretty much any other world cuisine. I put it down to many uninspiring, similarly bland curry house disappointments in my life.

I have on occasion had spectacular Indian food in the more ambitious or authentic restaurants, so I know the good stuff is out there, but I can't say that it's really part of my amateur chef's repertoire.

But tonight the limited available ingredients seemed to be shouting out "Curry". I won't claim for a second that what I cooked is in any way remotely authentic, but it's got more in common with curry than any other dish I can think of...

Curry Paste:

1 Large Onion

3 Spring Onions

5 Cloves of Garlic

1 Red Chili

1 Fennel Bulb (it was sitting in the fridge, so why not?)

2 Red Peppers (Tomatoes would have been nice but beggars can't be choosers)

Salt

Pepper

Pinch of sugar

Garam Malasa that was sitting in my cupboard

Blitz the whole lot up until it's a smooth paste. Fry in oil until aromatic, then add some hot water to stop it browning and sticking; and turn down the heat. Cook for an hour or two on a low simmer. Top up with hot water as needed to stop the sauce catching.

Once I had a nice looking curry sauce I threw in my frozen prawns, and a few minutes later some left-over cooked lentils. Then it was just a matter of waiting for the prawns to cook through - not long.

A final check for seasoning - maybe add a touch of vinegar / citrus to balance the flavours (my lentils were in a vinaigrette, so did the same job).

It's not authentic, bit it certainly hits the spot on a Friday night when your fridge is bare. And the beauty is that you could add or replace most of the ingredients in this recipe with something similar and still end up with a great meal.

Chargrilled Ribeye and Cavolo Nero

My office is near Westminster Bridge and that means on a Thursday and Friday the spectre of Borough Market is always at the back of my mind. It's easy enough to walk there (around 20 mins) but the challenge is to get there and back within a reasonable lunch break. Still, if I walk one way; time it just right and get a bus in the other direction it can be done. Just.

I'm here for a steak and after a bit of walk around gravitate to my usual choice: the Ginger Pig. The main thing I'm looking for is thickness.

The problem I have with many butchers / meat packers / steak cutters in this country? When I buy a steak I don't want it just a centimetre or two thick. Whats's the bloody good in that? There's no way to cook a thin sliver of a steak properly. You might as well give me a slice of carpaccio and tell me to whack it on the barbie.

The advantage of buying from a proper butcher is that you can ask for steaks to be cut exactly as thick as you like. And I like 'em thick.

You cannot get the most out of a steak unless it's thick enough to get a proper crust and still have the inside juicy and pink. If you're enough of a foodie geek to be reading a blog called 'Whats In My Mouth' I'm sure I don't need to tell you that.

I've been refining my perfect steak technique for a while now and will write about it in a future date. Not in the Heston Blumenthal 48 hour vacuum-packed sous-vide followed by throwing-half-away-and-getting-a-minion-to-finish-it-for-you way, but with a method that any untrained amateur cook, such as myself, can use at home.

More about that later. But for now I just wanted a chunky steak about an inch and a half thick. Ginger Pig had some nice looking Ribeye, and I got a very handsome steak, though it came to an eye watering 11 pounds.

Next a stop at one of the vegetable stalls. I saw some wonderfully dark and firm Cavolo Nero. Have never cooked it myself, but the River Cafe ladies harp on about it on their TV show, so thought it was worth a go.

Gave the steak a marinade in crushed rosemary, garlic and olive oil, then cooked it under a spanking hot grill. The Cavolo Nero I chopped, blanched and then fried off in butter with garlic. Turned out pretty good all together.