Daring Cooks Challenge: Pork Sate

The January 2010 Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Cuppy of Cuppylicious and she chose a delicious Thai-inspired recipe for Pork Satay from the book 1000 Recipes by Martha Day.

We could choose our own meat/tofu , but the required part of this challenge was marinate. Marinades serve two purposes, to: 1) add awesome flavor and 2) tenderize tougher meats.

Pork Sate with Peanut Sauce

Marinade:
1/2 small onion
2 garlic cloves
1 tbsp ginger root (optional)
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp ground coriander (I realized I was out of this and crushed the heck out of some coriander seeds with my mortar and pestle instead)
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground tumeric
2 tbsp oil (vegetable, peanut, olive)

Stuff to be marinated:
1 lb pork (loin or shoulder cuts)

Cheater alert: If you have a food processor just toss everything except the pork in and blend until smooth.

Chop the onion, garlic and ginger root very finely. Mix it into the rest of the marinade ingredients.

Cut Pork into 1 inch strips.

Cover pork with marinade. You can place the pork into a bowl, cover/seal and chill or place the whole lot into a ziplock bag and chill.

Let the pork marinade for 4-8 hours (no more than 24).

If you use bamboo skewers make sure to soak them in warm water for at least 20 minutes before using.

Gently slide strips of meat onto skewers. Discard leftover marinade.

Broil or grill at 290 C/550 F (or pan fry on medium high) for 8-10 minutes (until the edges start to char), turn and cook another 8-10 minutes.

Peanut Sauce

3/4 cup coconut milk
4 tbsp peanut butter (I used about twice this amount, it just seemed too runny otherwise)
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander (again, I used the mortar and pestle to crush the seeds)
1-2 dried red chilies (keep the seeds for heat), chopped (I used crushed dried chilies since that's what I had)

Mix dry ingredients in a small bowl. Add soy sauce and lemon, mix well.

Over low heat, combine coconut milk, peanut butter and your soy-lemon seasoning mix. Mix well, and stir often. The aim is to heat and melt the peanut butter, but don't let it boil!

This was a little different than the "Dutch" sate you find here, but we both quite liked it! The sauce was really good but I might play around with the marinade a little more next time I make it. Thanks cuppy!