Skewered Beef & Peanut Sauce
Satay—Indonesian
(Serves 8)

Beef & Marinade
2 lb. beef top round (1" thick)
2 medium red onions (grated)
3-4 cloves garlic (crushed)
2 tsp. lemon peel (grated)
2 tsp. ground coriander
2 tsp. ground caraway seeds
2 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. brown sugar
4 T vegetable oil for cooking
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Peanut Sauce
2 T vegetable oil
3 T onion (grated)
2 cloves garlic (crushed)
1/2 tsp. shrimp paste (see sidebar)
2 tsp. hot sauce
1 T brown sugar
2/3 C water
1/2 C smooth peanut butter*
2 T soy sauce
2 T lemon juice
1 tsp. salt

Marinate: slice beef into long, thin strips. In a small bowl, make a paste out of the remaining marinade ingredients, except oil, and rub it into the beef, making sure to coat all strips. Cover and marinate 1 hour. Soak 8 skewers in water for 30 minutes to prevent them from burning.

Assemble: thread beef slices on skewers and cook 4-6 minutes under broiler, or on grill, turning and brushing frequently with oil. Serve with Peanut Sauce in a separate bowl.

Peanut Sauce: heat oil in a skillet, add onion and sauté till golden. Remove onion and set aside. Add next 4 ingredients, stirring and cooking for 3 minutes. Sir in water and peanut butter and bring to a boil, stirring constantly till sauce is thick and smooth. 

Add salt, soy sauce, sugar and lemon juice. Add sautéed onion.  Set sauce aside to cool to room temperature. Serve in a separate bowl as an accompaniment to satay.

* Traditionalists prefer their own peanut butter: cook 1 1/3 C raw peanuts in 2 T hot oil for 4 minutes. Drain and blend to a paste in a food processor. Discard all but 1 T of oil from the peanut paste and use paste in the recipe.

Tips & Glossary: Southeast Asian

You probably won’t have many of the ingredients common to this cuisine. So before undertaking any of the recipes, make a list and head to an Asian food store.

Toss any old, even unopened, spice jars because they’ve probably lost their distinctive flavors. Put them on your shopping list. 

About those chilis: Southeast Asian food is Hot, with a capital H, hotter than most Westerners are used to. We’ve turned the heat down in these recipes somewhat, but just to warn you: adjust the use of chilies to your tastes.

Rice Sticks: aka rice noodles or vermicelli; thin dried noodles from rice flour. Soak before using, about 1 hour, or less, depending on how soft or chewy you like your noodles. You’ll want to experiment a bit before you find the texture you want. 

Shrimp Paste: made of fermented, ground shrimp. Called terasi in Indonesia, kapi in Thailand, blachanag in Malay, and mam tom in Vietnamese. It has a pungent smell, which you may find hard to take, but it’s essential in many dishes. 

Tamarind: tropical tree grown in Africa and Asia; its fruit pulp is used as souring agent for savory dishes in Asian cooking. It’s also found in Worcestershire sauce and some ketchup.

Wok: you can use a wok, though it’s not necessary—a deep, wide skillet will do. If you use a wok, make sure it’s properly seasoned: coat bottom and sides with 1 C oil and it till it begins to smoke.  Let it smoke for 2-3 minutes.  Pour out oil, and when wok is cool enough, rub with paper towel, removing excess oil.  Pour in ½ C coarse-grained salt and rub into bottom and sides of wok. Pour off salt and rub wok with a thin layer of oil—and you’ve got a seasoned wok.