Satay is a peanut sauce served with grilled pieces of chicken on wooden skewers. You need bamboo skewers. Take the boned skinned chicken meat and cut it into strips. Thread the meat onto bamboo skewers which have been previously soaked in water. Marinate the skewered meat in dark soya sauce.
Meanwhile make the sauce- you can actually buy very good ready-mix satay sauce, but this is how you make it yourself from scratch. Roast gently in a pan about 4 ounces of fresh peanuts (or you can use ready-roasted peanuts if you want). Grind the peanuts to a smooth paste in the pestle & mortar- this is very hard work. Finely chop and add a couple of spring onions. Add some ground chili- there should be a little hotness, but the amount of chili will depend on how much heat you like. Fry the paste gently in a spoonful of oil. Add the juice of a lime, a spoonful of dark brown sugar, a lump of creamed coconut and a tablespoonful of thick dark soya sauce. If you can get it, add a good pinch of a paste called blachan or trasi, made from dried shrimps. Add a cupful of water and heat to form a hot thick creamy sauce.
Grill the skewered chicken under a grill or on a flat pan until well cooked. Serve with the hot satay sauce poured over.
This is the Indonesian version of fried rice.
Fried rice is really a dish for using up the left-overs from the previous day. You need a bowlful of cold, cooked rice of course, an egg, some shredded fresh root ginger, some chopped onion, some chopped cooked meat or prawns, Ketjap Manis the dark sweet Indonesian soy sauce and a small pinch of blachan.
Fry the ginger and onion in a little oil. Break the egg in and scramble it. Add the cooked meat and the shrimps. Add blachan and stir it in. Add the cold-rice and a tablespoonful or so of the sweet dark soya sauce. Mix it in thoroughly so the colour is even and the rice is re-cooked well. Serve hot with chopped salad of tomatoes and green peppers on the side.
This is the Indonesian version of Chow Mein. You need two cakes of chinese egg noodles, about a quarter of a pound of fresh diced chicken meat, a few ounces of peeled shrimps or prawns, a clove of garlic shredded, some spring onions chopped, one or two cabbage or lettuce leaves shredded and light soya sauce.
Bring a panful of water to the boil, break the chinese noodles into the water and stir them around. Bring the water back to the boil, turn off the heat and cover. leave for six minutes until the noodles are cooked, then drain and reserve the noodles.
Meanwhile fry the diced chicken meat in a little oil in a pan until the meat is cooked. Add the onion & garlic and fry them. Add the shrimps. Add the shredded lettuce or cabbage. Add the cooked noodles and stir in until they are coated with the oil and juices. Add the soya sauce and a little water or chicken broth to make a little gravy, then serve.