Chicken Satay Skewers

Continuing the holiday themed food, these are Balinese chicken satay skewers learnt at Paon Bali cookery class in Ubud on our honeymoon, among many other dishes. First we went to the market to get the ingredients, and also saw an abundance of offering flowers, and a lady carrying trays of eggs on her head! I bought 12 packs of peanut sauce having had it at the afternoon tea at our hotel, and was very sad when it was finished, but at least I have the recipe to start it from scratch. We were very impressed with ourselves at actually making a dish from our cookery class when we returned, and that it didn’t take too long. It would work as an appetizer, or as a main course with rice, like we had.

Ingredients (for approximately 8 skewers):

CHICKEN SKEWERS:

• 250g minced chicken breast (put chicken breast into the food processor)
• 1/4 cup grated fresh coconut (or if frozen, add 1 tablespoon of coconut cream)
• 1 tablespoons of base gede, basic yellow sauce (see below)
• 1/2 tablespoon palm sugar
• 1 wedge of lime
• 1/2 tablespoon deep fried shallots
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 8 bamboo sticks (thicker than skewers) or ice-cream sticks

YELLOW SAUCE:

• 5 shallots
• 8 cloves of garlic
• 2 thumb-sized pieces of galangal
• 1 thumb-sized piece of ginger
• 1 teaspoon of turmeric powder
• 1 hot chili
• 1 red chili
• 2 macadamia nuts
• 1/2 teaspoon coriander seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
• 1/2 teaspoon white pepper
• 1 cloves
• 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg powder
• 1/2 tablespoon palm sugar
• 1/2 stalk of lemon grass
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 teaspoon of shrimp paste
• 2 tablespoon of coconut oil

PEANUT SAUCE:

• 1 ½ cups of fried peanuts with their skins
• 1 thumb-sized piece of galangal
• 2 macadamia nuts
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 hot chili
• ½ a medium tomato
• 5 tablespoons Indonesian sweet soy sauce, Kecap Manis
• 1 lime
• salt, optional
• ½ cup of water

Method:

1. Start with the yellow sauce. Clean and wash all ingredients except seeds and powders.
2. Slice and remove the seeds from the hot and red chilies. Finely chop shallots, garlic, galangal, ginger, macadamia nuts, red chilies and hot chilies.
3. Blend the chopped ingredients, coriander seeds, nutmeg and cloves until they form a fine paste.
4. Sauté the paste in the coconut oil.
5. Crush the lemongrass stalk then add salt, pepper, palm sugar, bay leaves and the lemongrass to the paste. Sauté for about seven minutes on a low heat.
6. This basic yellow sauce lasts for 1-2 weeks in the refrigerator and can be used up in the chicken curry recipe listed next.
7. For the skewers, add the minced chicken, yellow sauce, coconut, palm sugar, fried shallots, salt and pepper
   into a bowl and squeeze the lime over the mixture before mixing thoroughly.
8. Take about one tablespoon of the mixture and form a ball. Mould the ball onto the end
   of a bamboo stick. Repeat the process to make 8 sticks.
9. To make the peanut sauce, first slice the chili and remove the seeds. Blend the peanuts, garlic,
   macadamia nuts, galangal, chili and tomato until they form a fine paste.
10. Mix the paste with the half cup of water on a low heat. Add the Kecap Manis and salt, and squeeze the lime over the mixture. Stir thoroughly until mixed through.
11. Grill the sticks over charcoal or a grill and serve with the peanut sauce.

To use up the rest of your yellow sauce:

Chicken in Coconut Curry Ingredients (serves 6): 

• 3 chicken breasts
• 1 cup cubed potato
• 7 cloves of garlic
• 3 shallots
• 1 spring onion
• 2 red chilies
• 3 tablespoons coconut cream
• ½ litre chicken stock
• 2 tablespoons of basic yellow sauce
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil
• 2 bay leaves
• 5 kaffir lime leaves
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tablespoon deep fried shallots (optional garnish)

Method:

1. Slice the red chilies and remove their seeds. Slice shallots, garlic, spring onion and the red chilies. Clean, peel and cut the potato into 2 centimeter cubes. Cut the chicken into small slices.
2. Sauté shallots, garlic and spring onion on a medium heat until light brown. Add the yellow sauce then the chicken and stir together.
3. Add the chicken stock and bring to the boil. Break the bay and kaffir lime leaves then add them to the stock, with salt and pepper to taste. Add the coconut cream and keep on a lower heat for 2 minutes before serving.
4. Serve in a bowl with deep fried shallots as a garnish.