Sate Ayam

Sate Ayam or Chicken Satay. It's like, everybody's favourite. There are a lot of satay or sate in Indonesia, but this sate is Sate Ayam Madura, is one of the most famous satay in Indonesia.

Back in my home town (am I talking about my home town too much? Sorry), 'tukang' Sate Ayam (Chicken Satay's seller) could easily found around almost any residence area. Some tukang sate usually open on the side of the road or street from dawn to very late of night. Some other tukang sate pushing their cart passing houses while yells out, "Teeee, sateeeeeee!!". If you're bored with your home cooking, just call out the tukang sate and your tummy will be happy. Aww, I love road side food stalls :)
But... now we are in Auckland. There's no way there will be any food seller pushing their carts around your neighbourhood. Ever. Absolutely no Sate. Maybe there are some restaurant that sells Sate. But, it might be expensive and might not have the same taste as we used to bought in home town(again).

Browsing around the recipes, I found this recipe. Hmm, might be not so hard, so I gave it a shot. First of all, the chicken. You can use the breast fillets. But, in my opinion, chicken breast is not so juicy, you know? I decided to use boneless thighs instead. They are more juicy than the breasts. I tossed away some of their fats. Too much bulky chicken's fat scares me sometimes. Thighs have a lot of fat.

I grilled the sate on a pan over stove. For the sauce, I was still not so good in frying the peanuts. Peanuts has to be fry in hot oil, but the heat must be low. We want peanuts that brown and crunchy. Otherwise, the peanuts can be over cooked, too dark, and taste a bit bitter. So it has to be taken out from oil before it's too dark. Well, I was a little late, it became too dark but fortunately it wasn't so bitter. I made it the sauce not so spicy hot because I made them for the toddlers too. If it was for adults only, I might have add more chilli peppers.

Overall they tastes good and reminded us the taste of homeland.

Sate Ayam

Ingredients:
800 gr - 1 kg boneless thighs, diced about 2x2x2cm
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1 lime
2 tbsp oil
15 - 20 skewers
sweet soy sauce

Spices, grind altogether until smooth:
1 big red chilli pepper, toss away the seeds
2 small hot chilli peppers
3 big shallots
2 cloves garlic
6 candle nuts, fried or tasted
2 tsp palm sugar
1 tsp salt

Peanut sauce:
150 gr peanuts with skins, fried
water
lime


Directions:
- Marinated the diced chicken with lime juice and crushed garlic. Set aside.
- Grind the peanuts, but not too smooth. It is better to make it a bit chunky. Set aside.
- Heat oil on a pan over medium heat.
- Cook the grounded spices until well fragrant. Turn the heat off. Take 2 tablespoon of this cooked spice, mix with 2 tablespoon of sweet soy sauce, set aside. Left the other part of cooked spice in the pan.
- Mix the ground peanuts with cooked spiced, turn the heat on, add some water until reach sauce consistency. Cook just until boiled. Set aside.
- Thread the chicken onto the skewers, about 4-5 dice per skewer. Grill about 2-3 minutes one side. Brush soy sauced-spice onto the cooked side of chicken.
- Grill the other side about 2-3 minutes, then brush with spice-soy sauce again. Grill until done.
- Serve them with peanut sauce, sweet soy sauce and a splash of lime juice. You can add some chilli sauce if you like it hot.
- Enjoy! :)