Throughout the Southern Asia every restaurant or fast foods cook satay recipes. Satay was originally born in Indonesia, but its sophisticated taste rapidly conquered all the surrounding countries and, moreover, in present days gains more and more popularity in Europe and the US. Peanut satay recipe is based on meat, spices, soy sauce and an incredibly smooth peanut sauce. There are a lot of versions of this dish, one for each nationality cooking it. The most popular of them, following the Indonesian version, is the Thai Chicken Satay recipe. It’s thought to be less sweet than its Indonesian correspondent and uses coconut milk for the peanut sauce.

What many people don’t know is that Satay is not cooked exclusively with chicken meat, but also with beef, pork, mutton or even more exotic types, such as crocodile. For Americans, Satay has become more and more popular as they can cook it out, along with their hamburgers or barbecue. Moreover, the Satay leftovers can always be reheated or frozen. The beef Satay recipe is very common in Thailand and it takes no longer than half an hour to prepare it.

The ingredients can easily be found in the Asian corner of supermarkets and whoever wants to cook the exact Thai version will need: beef tenderloin (0.5 – 1 kg), green onions (3 pieces), garlic (2 cloves), coriander (1tsp.), cumin (1/2 tsp.), cayenne (1/2 tsp.), turmeric (1/2 tsp.), soy sauce (1/2 tbsp), fish sauce (4 tbsp.), honey (1/3 cup), lemon juice (1 tbsp.), coconut milk (1/2 cup) and a package of bamboo Satay stick.

Before starting to cook the Satay, it’s better to put the skewers into water, in order to keep them from burning. Afterwards, the beef must be cut into long slices, 2cm wide. All the ingredients mentioned above have to be mixed in a marinade, but carefully, so that the honey would be completely dissolved. People sometimes use dark brown sugar instead of honey. However, when it’s taste-tested, the marinade should be salty and sweet – for those who prefer spicier food more cayenne pepper can be added. The meat should be stirred in the marinade and left there for approximately 2 hours (the more it stays in the marinade, the more aromas it gets).

Satay was originally cooked on wooden or charcoal fire, but if none of these is possible, then a grilled pan with a drop of vegetable oil would do just fine. The slices of meet must be skewered on the bamboo sticks in a manner that won’t allow it to fall into the fire and it’s recommended to leave the lower half of the sticks free in order to handle them. It shouldn’t take longer than 10 minutes to grill the Satay on both sides. The Satay is usually served with a specific sauce made of peanuts or peanut butter or just with some slices of onion or cucumber. In Netherland the dish might be even served with French fries and mayonnaise. However, satay recipes are easy to cook and ensure a sophisticated meal, with the exotic aromas that only Asian food can offer.