Rosie Is Trying Another Chicken Satay. She Wants To Get It Right!

The other day I made a chicken satay with a peanut sauce which Mr. Hawthorne deemed to be "good." Just "good." Nothing more. Nothing less. Although the boys (Middle Hawthorne and Artemus) seemed to love it, since I had nothing left. Mr. Hawthorne seems to have a demanding, particular palate at times. So now, I'm determined to make a chicken satay which will be better than "good." I turned to Google and found this recipe.

First, I'm starting on the marinade.

My ingredients for the marinade: 1 teaspoon coriander seed 1 teaspoon cumin seed 1 TB chopped garlic

1 TB fresh ginger 2 TB fish sauce 1 TB curry powder pinch turmeric 8 TB coconut milk 3 TB palm sugar

Remember, I always keep my ginger in the freezer. I cut off what I need, nuke it, and the juice just pours out.

I toasted the coriander seed and the cumin seed, mortared and pestled the seeds, and added to the bowl.

Garlic went in.

Ginger and juice.

Fish sauce. What's fish sauce? The ingredients listed are anchovy extract, sea salt, and unrefined cane sugar. All right. Let's all just have a collective EWWWWWWW. I tasted it. It's kinda fishy and salty. But not as bad as I what I was expecting. I mean ... anchovy extract. OK. Carry on.

Cumin.

Just a shake of turmeric.

And 8 tablespoons of coconut milk. Whoa ... Is coconut milk supposed to be the consistency of Crisco?

Whew, after digging a bit deeper, I got some liquid. And whisked.

Coconut milk went in to the mixture.

Now, I have no palm sugar nor do I have any plans to purchase any, so I substituted brown sugar. And that's my marinade.

Next, I boned some chicken breasts, putting the bones in my freezer bag for chicken stock in the future, and cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces.

I poured the marinade over the chicken pieces.

And massaged the meat. Heh. (Twelve.) And the recipe said to marinate overnight. Since, I'm doing this in the morning, I was planning on having this for dinner tonight, but ... Ah ... the best laid plans ... Next, the peanut sauce.

The recipe called for 4 ounces of peanuts. I love my new digital scale.

My ingredients: 4 ounces roasted peanuts, ground almost to a powder 3-4 cloves garlic, minced 1 ounce chopped onions 1-2 tablespoons red curry paste 1 teaspoon fish sauce 8 TB coconut milk 4-6 teaspoon lime juice 2-3 teaspoons palm sugar

Ground peanuts, garlic, and 1 ounce chopped onion. And, yes, that's exactly 1 ounce of onion.

Curry paste goes in.

Fish sauce gets added to the mix.

And the coconut milk goes in.

Brown sugar.

Now this is a very thick sauce so I'm using the juice of a whole lime.

It's still kind of thick, soooo ....

... I added a bit more coconut milk. And then I tasted it, and you know what? I could taste every ingredient. Is that cool or what? Great. Now I have this little ear worm tunneling into my brain. Next, I'm making my own cucumber sauce, not the sauce in the recipe. Youngest Hawthorne's favorite restaurant on the beach is the Thai Room. I particularly love one of their appetizers - the fried sweet potato slices which come with a cucumber dip which I have replicated here.

My ingredients: 2 TB each cider and white vinegar red onion green onion toasted peanuts 1 teaspoon sugar 1 TB honey 2 dried red chilies chopped cucumber

I mixed the vinegars and the sugar, then added in the honey.

Sliced red and green onions went in.

Chopped cucumber went in.

Chopped red chilies got added.

And finally the toasted peanuts went in.

This sauce is very flavorful. You have the sweet flavors of the sugar and honey and the sour flavors of the vinegars. You have the bite of the red and green onions, the sting of the chilies, the calming coolness of the cukes, and the crunchy nuttiness of the peanuts. You know what? I think I'll actually make the cucumber sauce specified in the recipe. And compare the two. Doesn't all this look really good? Can't you just wait to see it cooked and plated? I know. I know. I feel the same way! I'm really excited. But you, dear readers, will JUST HAVE TO WAIT. Like I have to WAIT. Since Mr. Hawthorne has decided he wants PIZZA for dinner tonight. No Chicken Satay tonight. No Siree. It's pizza tonight folks. Grrrrrr. Where are my anti-bitch meds? Well, look on the bright side. That marinade is gonna be kick-ass!