Just the mere mention of the word satay is enough to get anyone drooling. The grilled marinated skewered meat is the epitome of Malaysian Street Food. We can argue about how fantastic our favourite ‘warung sate‘ (satay stall vendor) might be, however the appeal of Satay Kajang has never waned. Who is to argue when Kajang is informally known as the “Satay Town”.
You might be wondering “Where in the world is Kajang?” Kajang is a city in the eastern part of Selangor state, about 20km or so from Kuala Lumpur. Standard Malaysian satays (I have posted a recipe here) are marinated (each vendor have their own secret recipe) and grilled over charcoal fire, serve with standard condiments of cucumber, red onions, nasi himpit (pressed rice cakes) and spicy sweet peanut sauce. Satay Kajang is double the size of standard satay, the meat marinated with spices and served with spicy sambal peanut sauce. The huge size is rather filling to be served as a main dish. There is a choice of chicken, beef, fish, mutton, duck, chicken liver, beef tripe, venison and rabbit satay. Yes, whatever type of meat you fancy. Sambal (spicy chili paste) is served on the side to add into the peanut sauce according to your own spice level.
Don’t fret if you don’t have a charcoal grill (neither do I). I’m still pretty hopeless in starting fires on the charcoal (well I’ll just leave it to the men). So you can still grill in the comfort of your kitchen, using a grill pan, oven or toaster oven.
Malaysian satay is just incomplete without a good serving of nasi himpit or ketupat (pressed rice in palm leaves) and thick peanut sauce. For really good peanut sauce, don’t skip the step of pounding the peanuts and adding jaggery or palm sugar. Roasted peanuts can be coarsely grinded and then hand pounded with a pestle and mortar. Trust me, it does make a whole world of difference.
I am submitting this post to Malaysian Food Fest Kuala Lumpur Selangor Month hosted by Shannon of Just As Delish
- Satay
- 4 (about 1kg) deboned Chicken Thigh – cut into 1 inch pieces
- 2 [url href=”http://amzn.to/2DpXOep” target=”_blank”]Lemongrass[/url] (use only the white parts)
- 6 small Shallots
- 1 inch Ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon [url href=”http://amzn.to/2FvGdCy” target=”_blank”]Ground Cumin[/url]
- 1/2 teaspoon [url href=”http://amzn.to/2EE6Tje” target=”_blank”]Ground Fennel[/url]
- 1/2 teaspoon [url href=”http://amzn.to/2CYGIUa” target=”_blank”]Turmeric Powder[/url]
- 1 tablespoon Sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon Salt
- 50ml Water (if using blender, to aid the blending process)
- 1 Lemongrass – bruised with knife handle & 2 tablespoon vegetable oil.
- Spicy Peanut Sauce
- 200g (1 1/2 cup) Roasted Peanuts – coarsely grind and pound finely with pestle & mortar
- 10 Shallots
- 3 [url href=”http://amzn.to/2DpXOep” target=”_blank”]Lemongrass[/url] (use only the white parts)
- 2 inch [url href=”http://amzn.to/2DeUW6M” target=”_blank”]Galangal[/url] (Lengkuas)
- 2 inch Ginger
- 10 (8g) [url href=”http://amzn.to/2FyXPgY” target=”_blank”]Dried Chilli[/url] – seeds removed
- 1/2 teaspoon [url href=”http://amzn.to/2FAKTHw” target=”_blank”]Ground Coriander[/url]
- 1/2 teaspoon [url href=”http://amzn.to/2FvGdCy” target=”_blank”]Ground Cumin[/url]
- 4 tablespoon [url href=”http://amzn.to/2FxJIIy” target=”_blank”]Jaggery[/url] or [url href=”http://amzn.to/2DciRDD” target=”_blank”]Palm Sugar[/url] (Gula Melaka) (I use 3 tablespoon)
- 1 tablespoon Tamarind Juice (extracted from 1 teaspoon [url href=”http://amzn.to/2FziT6N” target=”_blank”]tamarind paste[/url] with 50ml water)
- 1/2 teaspoon Salt or to taste
- 3 tablespoon Vegetable Oil
- 100ml Water
- Accompaniment
- 1/2 Cucumber – cut into cubes
- 1/2 Red Onion – cut into quarters
- [url href=”http://thenewartofbaking.blogspot.com/2011/04/satay-kajang-malaysia-pressed-ricenasi.html” target=”_blank”]Nasi Himpit[/url] (Pressed Rice Cakes)
- Pulse all the ingredients except chicken in a food processor into a smooth paste.
- Mix paste with cut chicken pieces until they are well coated. Marinate for at least 10 hours, or overnight in the fridge.
- Soak bamboo skewers for at least 30 minutes. This will prevent the bamboo from getting burnt when grilling.
- Make satay skewers by threading 3-4 pieces of marinated chicken onto a soaked bamboo skewer. Continue until all the chicken is done.
- Cook the satay over a hot charcoal grill as I did here. or on the grill pan for this recipe. Grill for 1-2 minutes on each side, the meat should be slightly charred with a few brown spots and cooked through. Brush some oil with the bruised lemongrass. [br][img src=”http://www.justasdelish.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/sataykajang4.jpg” alt=”Satay Kajang” width=”200″ height=”150″ class=”alignnone size-full wp-image-6703″] [img src=”http://www.justasdelish.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/sataykajang5.jpg” alt=”Satay Kajang” width=”200″ height=”146″ class=”alignnone size-full wp-image-6704″]
- For the oven broiler or toaster oven method, line a tray with aluminum foil. Place wire rack 4-5 inches away from the heat source and lined tray below it to collect the dripping fat. Preheat oven for 10 minutes. Remove the rack from the oven and arrange the satay skewers on the rack. Broil the satay for 1-2 minutes, or until the meat is slightly charred with a few brown spots and cooked through. Turn the skewers over, brush some oil over the beef (optional), and continue broiling for another 1 1/2-2 minutes, browned and completely cooked.
- Remove the cooked satay, rest for 5 minutes and ready to serve with spicy peanut sauce, cucumbers, onions and rice cakes.[br][img src=”http://www.justasdelish.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/sataykajang6.jpg” alt=”Satay Kajang” width=”200″ height=”149″ class=”alignnone size-full wp-image-6705″] [img src=”http://www.justasdelish.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/sataykajang7.jpg” alt=”Satay Kajang” width=”200″ height=”149″ class=”alignnone size-full wp-image-6717″]
- Place dried chili in a small pot, add enough water to cover the chili and bring water to a boil.
- Drain the chili and add them with shallots, lemongrass, galangal, ginger, ground coriander & ground cumin into food processor, grind to become smooth paste. Add some water if necessary to keep the blades turning.
- Heat up oil in a small pot, stir-fry the spice paste until fragrant, turn the heat to medium-high and continue cooking until the oil separates.
- Add in tamarind juice, peanuts, some water, stir well and turn up the heat to boil the paste. Cover the pot, turn the heat to low and simmer for another 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally. The oil from the peanuts will rise to the top of paste and the consistency should be thick. Add water if it’s too thick. Add jaggery & salt, then take off heat.
Comments
23 responses to “MFF KL Selangor: Satay Kajang”
You make my mouth water just looking at your photos. Will definitely be trying it out.
great easy recipe, whole family loves the flavour! I tried mixing all the ingredients wet and dry the second time round and ended up with a mess rather than a shortcut. Decades later I’m still trying to recreate the recipes of my upbringing in Malaysia. Next on the list will be Assam Laksa Penang style but where to get those lovely white noodles. Keep up the good work Shannon!
Thank you Bernie. Glad your family enjoys the recipe
Hi Shannon,
I tried making your satay sauce today and there appears to be a discrepancy in your recipe. In your ingredients there were lengkuas and ginger but they were not in your cooking instructions. Did you forget to leave them out or were they supposed to be in the ingredients? Please advise.
Thanks.
Lucy
Hi Lucy, thanks for letting me know about the discrepancy. I apologise for the confusion. The lengkuas and ginger is to be added in the 2nd step of the sauce and grinded together into paste. I have amended the instruction.
This is a great recipe. Had a bbq at the weekend and made this for some friends who’d never tried satay before. It was very popular! 🙂
Awesome that your friends love it! One of the best BBQ dishes!
Thanks for the recipe
i will try to make it 😀
Outstanding recipe! Tried it n love it. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you Jane, glad you love it! Now you’ve got me craving for kajang satay 😀
Wow, your satay recipe looks outstanding. I may say the best so far online.
thank you for sharing with us. I have not tried it yet. will provide feedback .
Thank you Linda, do let me know how it turn out for you
I’ve made this recipe twice now! I love it!
Thanks for updating me, glad you love it!
I cannot resist a peanut dipping sauce! It’s one of my worst attributes. These look absolutely amazing! I want to eat one (or seven) straight off my screen!
Lovely work! Would you be happy to link it in to the current Food on Friday which is all about sauces? This is the link . I do hope to see you there. There are already quite a lot of links for you to check out. Cheers
Yes, I can’t resist satays of any kind but much prefer the regular chicken or beef types….yours looks very succulent and well made…can serve in restaurants already:D
What a wonderful satay recipe: don’t remember putting fennel in any of my marinades and shall cut my meat larger the next time around . . . am already doing a virtual taste test 🙂 !
Thanks Eha! normal satay don’t use any grind spices, only satay kajang. enjoy!
Beautiful, Shannon! Beautiful!
thank you Phong Hong!
hm interesting Shannon. Chicken liver satay sounds quite exciting but of course I would enjoy chicken meat satay too. I ll have to google what galangal is, I doubt I ll be able to get this here. Love all the ingredients that you have added in your recipe and I hope I can try it out soon!
I’ve only tried chicken, beef & pork satay, the rest are also strange for me. Galangal is also known as blue ginger, if you can’t find that, you can substitute with ginger