Chicken Satay

Satay is a meat marinated in the spices and coconut milk served with peanut dipping sauce and cucumber salad.  In Thailand we also serve with some toast to dip into the peanut sauce.  Actually in the original Thai recipe we use pork to make Satay called moo satay. 

I never made Satay in Thailand!!! Yes it is true. Why??? Because, In Thailand you can find it in a lot of venders, so it is not worth the trouble to make it at home right.  The first time I made it was about 5 years ago and I made it for my host parents’ home and they loved it.  I used ready to marinate Satay seasoning.  They have all of the marinate in an envelope and peanut dipping sauce in an envelope already so you just need meat and coconut milk.  Later on I wanted to figure out how to make it from scratch, so I tried all of the ingredients and came out this recipe was easy to find the ingredients and not too much trouble to make it!!

Ingredients

Marinate chicken

1 lb. chicken

2 cube grounded chicken bouillon cube

4 tbsp. Sugar

½ tsp. salt

1 tsp. turmeric



Turmeric



1 cup coconut milk for marinate

¼ cup coconut milk for brush the meat while grilling

50 skewers

Peanut dipping sauce

2 tbsp. Musaman curry paste

1 ¼ cup coconut milk

3 tbsp. peanut butter

¼ cup ground peanut

2 tbsp. Sugar

1 tsp. salt

Cucumber salad

2 cucumbers cut into quarter then slice them about ¼ inch thick

1 jalapeño slice

2 shallot or red onion slice

½ cup sugar

½ cup white vinegar

1 tsp. salt

Cooking instructions

Chicken satay

1.       Cut chicken into strip about ¼ inch thick

2.       Into mixing bowl add sugar, salt, chicken bouillon, turmeric, and coconut milk stir it until mixed well then add chicken and mix it until the marinate covers every piece of chicken.  Then let it sit at least 2 hours.

3.       Put the marinated meat into the skewer then grill it about 2-3 minutes per side brushing with coconut milk on each side of it while grilling.

Dipping sauce

1.       In the sauce pan add coconut milk and curry paste, stir it fast until it becomes oily (Call Ka-ti Tak mun)

2.        Add peanut butter, sugar and salt keep stirring then add ground peanut stir until mixed well.

Cucumber salad

1.       Into sauce pan add sugar, vinegar, salt turn the heat on stir until sugar and salt dissolve, then let it boil about 5 minutes, turn it off and let it cool.

2.       When the dressing cools pour it over the cucumbers, slice shallot and jalapeno.

Mama Salad: instant noddle salad

Ma-ma is not mom or mother, but it is a brand of famous instant noodle in Thailand.  In Thailand we have all kind of instant noodles that intimidate real Thai famous dish like instant noodle pork soup, instant noodle spicy shrimp soup etc.  They all come like instant noodles in America that have one block of dried noodles that you cook for 2-3 minutes and a pack of seasonings.  This menu came from my collage of memories.  We had one vender that always had a pack of students were waiting for this dish.  This vender used instant noodles cooked it and added all kinds of meat like ground pork, shrimp, squid, chicken feet, hot dog, also some cooked cabbage, onions and seasoned it with lime juice, fish sauce and seasoning.  So this dish became very famous with a lot of teenagers in Thailand.

                For this dish I used Thai spicy shrimp soup and flavored instant noodles to make dish.  Because it will make this dish more flavorful, the seasoning has almost everything you need by just adding a little bit of lime juice and fish sauce if needed.  I found this in Kroger and Wal-Mart supermarkets in the Asian aisle.  But if you cannot find it go ahead and use the one you have, you just need to use more lime juice, fish sauce, some chili paste called Num prick pow (I have details in tom yum kung blog) to season it.  For me this time I will use shrimp with imitation crab meat and some carrots, but you can use any kind of meat or vegetables you like. Now let’s get started!!!

Ingredients : 1 serving

1 package Thai spicy shrimp soup flavored instant noodle with seasoning

5 pieces shrimp

3 pieces imitation crab meat cut in half

½ cup cabbage / carrot

1/4 cup mushroom

2 tsp. lime juice

2 tsp. fish sauce

¼ cup.  Celery leave cut into 1 inch.

Note :   if you use another kind of instant noodle use 2 tbsp. of lime juice, fish sauce and 1 tbsp. Num-prick-prow.

Cooking instructions

1.       In the mixing bowl add lime juice, fish sauce, seasoning package mix well

2.       In the medium pot bring the water to a boil.  Then add cabbage/carrot, mushroom, shrimp, noodle and imitation crab meat.  Let it cook about 2-3 minutes then drain and add into mixing bowl

3.        Toss all ingredients together till mixed well then add celery leaf.

4.       Serve with carrot, celery stick, and cucumber for cooling down the heat.

Pad-Tou-Nag-Kab-Tao-Hu-Tod : Stir fried bean sprout with tofu

    

        This vegetarian recipe is very simple and easy that’s why it became one of my favorites.  When I eat vegetarian yep….I’m a vegetarian, but just a certain time of the year.  In Thailand we have vegetarian festival call “Kin Jay” it means eat vegetarian.  This festival came from the Chinese people that moved in to Thailand a long time ago.  We have a big celebration and parade in Pu-Ket  (southern  Thailand) around October.  This festival is about cleaning our soul by don’t eat meat and certain vegetables for 9 days (some people they start 3 days before to wash their stomachs before this festival begins).  The certain vegetable that we cannot eat is onion, green onion, garlic and chive. Also anything that is made from animal like milk, butter etc. But one funny thing about this festival is we can eat oyster even though it is an animal, but that comes from this story (my great-grandma told me).  A Long time ago Chinese people who were in the Kin-Jay period they got stuck in the middle of the ocean.  They couldn’t eat anything so they prayed.  If Fairy wants them to be alive thru this festival they will throw the net in the ocean and whatever thing that’s on the net they will assume that they can eat it in this festival.  So the poor oyster got caught on the net.  Since then the oyster is acceptable to eat in the festival.

            Anyway this recipe is very easy to find all of the ingredients in America that still keep my soul clean.  I will also have more vegetarian food recipes for you in the future a little bit at a time.

Ingredients

firm tofu

1 cup Fried  firm tofu

Deep fried tofu

fried tofu after 5 minute

2 cup bean sprouts

1 tbsp. soy sauce

1 tbsp. oyster sauce (if you don’t want it, leave it out)

1 tsp. sugar

1 tbsp. vegetable oil

Cooking instructions

1.      In pan heat vegetable oil till very hot

2.      Add bean sprout with fried tofu then stir

3.      Add soy sauce, sugar, oyster sauce stir it till cooked about 3-5 times (very fast)

4.      Turn heat off and serve with steamed rice

Now your food is ready for cleaning your soul.