Chicken satay

1. Presentation

This is a delicious dish which restaurants offer as a starter, but it can equally be served as a main course at home. Satay sauce is the brown peanut-flavoured sauce of Malaysian and Thai cooking.

People reading my recipes will have some difficulty making this recipe faithfully since I get the main ingredient for it via some of my relations direct from Singapore! The only advice I can offer is to look for the satay spices in stores near where you live and hope that they give as good a result as those I am given. Just in case, they are called: 'Instant satay spices, manufactured by Evandom Trading, Ingredients: chilli, onion, garlic, sugar, salt, peanut, sesame seed, spices'. These spices are sold in 50 g sachets and the contents are brownish-yellow, and they have to be mixed with coconut milk to make the satay sauce.

Another solution: look on the Internet or elsewhere for a detailed recipe for satay and be prepared to hunt out all the necessary spices. If I recall rightly, quite a few are needed, and some are rather exotic (e.g. turmeric).

2. Ingredients

Chicken fillets	500 g
Satay spices (instant satay spices, manufactured by Evandom Trading)	4 x 50 g packets*
Powdered coconut milk	160 g*
Water	640 ml*
Wooden skewers
Oil (for frying)	a very small amount

*Note: I save time by preparing larger quantities of the sauce and putting some of it into the freezer. That is why I use a whole box of powdered coconut and that number of packets of spice. Divide all the amounts by 4 if you only want to prepare the amount for the recipe.

3. Preparation
1. Meat
• Cut the chicken fillets into thin slices.
• Heat the oil in the wok to 180°. Fry the chicken fillets until golden brown.
2. Sauce
• Heat the water and when it is warm, add the powdered coconut milk.
• Add the spices and heat a little longer for the flavours to blend.
4. Serving

Thread the slices of chicken onto the skewers. Pour the satay sauce into a shallow dish either separately or in the dish together with the chicken. Serve with basmati rice.