Saucy Satay

Forgive the stupid title. -_-

The January 2010 DC 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.

I am not a big fan of pork. I will eat it, on occasion (read: when the only other choice is chicken). However, I resolved to try it again after seeing a yummy-looking recipe in the December issue of Cooking Light magazine. And, happily enough, this months' Daring Cooks challenge also contains pork, since pork chops seem to come in packs of four, and there are only two of us.

Raw pork with marinade...yeah I didn't take any pics of the marinade by itsef :(

Mixing the marinade wasn't bad, and happily enough I had all of the spices required on hand (shocking, I know).

I have been using my iron skillet to cook all of my meat recently, and I love it. It tastes better this way.

While I was waiting for the pork to marinade, I went ahead and mixed up a recipe of sweet and sour dipping sauce (see: Daring Cook's June Challenge(Dumplings) for the recipe), because that is my husband's favorite. I was going to make a black pepper dipping sauce and the peanut dipping sauce, as well, but I didn't have all of the ingredients for either of those, so I decided just to stick with the one. Which I also didn't take pictures of. Gah. -_-

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....

I ended up cooking it for a little bit longer than the recipe recommended because they were still pink inside. :( I "pan fried" them because it is winter and charcoal grills don't work very well when it is cold outside! They still turned out really well.

They're making me hungry!

Pork Satay with Peanut Sauce
My notes in italics

Satay Marinade Ingredients
1/2 small onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed I substituted 2 tsp minced garlic
1 T ginger root, chopped (optional) (2 cm cubed) I subsituted 1 tsp ground ginger
2 T lemon juice (1 oz or 30 mls)
1 T soy sauce (0.5 oz or 15 mls)
1 tsp ground coriander (5 mls)
1 tsp ground cumin (5 mls)
1/2 tsp ground turmeric (2-2.5 mls)
2 T vegetable oil (or peanut or olive oil) (30 mls) I used olive oil
1 pound of pork (loin or shoulder cuts) (16 oz or 450g)

Directions
1)I prefer to chop my onions, garlic and ginger really fine then mix it all together in a medium to large bowl.
2) Cut pork into 1 inch strips.
3) Cover pork with marinade. You can place the pork into a bowl, cover/seal and chill, or place the whole lot of it into a ziplock bag, seal and chill.

Cooking Directions (continued):
4) If using wooden or bamboo skewers, soak your skewers in warm water for at least 20 minutes before preparing skewers. I couldn't find my skewers until after the meat was cooked...anyways, I don't know how to pan-fry meat on a stick!
5) Gently and slowly slide meat strips onto skewers. Discard leftover marinade.
6) Broil or grill at 290°C/550° F (or pan fry on medium-high) for 8-10 minutes or until the edges just start to char. Flip and cook another 8-10 minutes. I ended up cooking them longer because they weren't done after 20 minutes.

And this is the Peanut Sauce Recipe I didn't end up using:
Peanut Sauce
3/4 cup coconut milk (6 oz or 180 mls)
4 Tbsp peanut butter (2 oz or 60 mls)
1 Tbsp lemon juice (0.5 oz or 15 mls)
1 Tbsp soy sauce (0.5 oz or 15 mls)
1 tsp brown sugar (5 mls)
1/2 tsp ground cumin (2.5 mls)
1/2 tsp ground coriander (2.5 mls)
1-2 dried red chilies, chopped (keep the seeds for heat)

1) Mix dry ingredients in a small bowl. Add soy sauce and lemon, mix well.
2) Over low heat, combine coconut milk, peanut butter and your soy-lemon-seasoning mix. Mix well, stir often.
3) All you’re doing is melting the peanut butter, so make your peanut sauce after you’ve made everything else in your meal, or make ahead of time and reheat.

Conclusion
This is something I might actually make again, with more dipping sauce choices. And possibly different marinades, as well. I thought the pork was good even without the sweet and sour sauce. My husband liked them too (but he likes all meat so that isn't terribly surprising!)