Beef Satay

How to Cook Beef Satay

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1. Pound or blend the lemongrass, shallots, garlic, galangal, turmeric, coriander and cumin to a paste.

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2. Mix half the paste with the caster sugar, salt and 1 tbsp of the oil and turn the beef through it.

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3. Marinate 2 hours refrigerated.

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4. Grind the peanuts coarsely, leaving some texture.

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5. Fry the remaining paste and the satay paste in the rest of the oil for 5 minutes, until the oil separates.

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6. Add the ground peanuts, coconut milk, tamarind and palm sugar and simmer 10 minutes, until thick.

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7. Thread the beef strips onto the soaked skewers in flat ribbons.

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8. Grill over white-hot charcoal or a smoking griddle for 3 minutes, turning once.

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9. Rest 2 minutes.

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10. Serve with the peanut sauce, cucumber chunks and raw onion wedges.

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Related guide: Prep, cook and total time.

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Things to Watch For

1. Flat ribbons, not cubes.
2. Three minutes on the fiercest heat you have.
3. Split the oil out of the sauce paste before the liquid goes in.

Ingredient Swaps

• If coconut is a problem, a cooking cream (dairy or plant-based) can stand in for the coconut milk in a sauce; the dish will lose the coconut flavour and taste noticeably different.
• An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the stand-in usually given when you are out of fresh garlic; it will not brown the same way, and it burns easily, so add it with the liquid.

A Little Background

Thread the beef on the skewer in a flat ribbon rather than in cubes, so it grills in three minutes rather than eight. Satay is meant to be charred outside and barely done inside, and cubes cannot do that — by the time the middle is warm the outside is dry. Fry the peanut sauce paste until the oil splits out before the liquid goes in, exactly as with a curry.

To Go With It

Nasi impit or rice cakes · Cucumber and raw onion · Cold beer

Leftovers

The sauce keeps 5 days refrigerated. Marinated raw beef freezes 2 months.

Quick Answers

Nutrition per Serving

No nutrition figures are given for this recipe: they cannot be worked out reliably from its ingredient list (some ingredient lines cannot be read). Why some recipes have none.

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