I've been watching too episodes of Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations and looking at too many photos of the meals posted by my world traveler friend, Bob that it’s making me want to experience the street food of another country. However, the last time I did internationally eat was in the streets of Quezon City, where my cousin Benji bought us Crispy Pata a decade ago, and more recently locally last summer when my friend, Kat bought chicken satay from the food truck Satay by the Bay, which claims to serve Singaporean Malay dishes and was my inspiration for last night’s meal. If I can't go to one of Singapore's hawker centers, then I'll try to recreate a taste my own home kitchen. I impulsively bought a jar of Satay peanut sauce from World Market into which you dip grilled chicken or pork. I dipped my Vietnamese shrimp rolls into the jar and was decidedly underwhelmed. And so I decided to add soy sauce and hot honey to it as well as a little canola oil and turmeric and marinade chicken thighs in it.
And after I put the marinating chicken into the fridge, it was time to head to clay studio, where I was happily productive: made a big butter dish, a shot cup, and a succulent planter (little plant pots are great for using up scraps that I don't want to squash back into the bag) and underglazed a cocktail cup and a bigger succulent planter. Back at the condo, I decided to make a better peanut sauce to dip the chicken and my leftover shrimp rolls into. I also sliced two Persian cucumbers to salt and leach out any moisture. I did a mashup of a few recipes I saw online for peanut dipping sauce, and instead of using peanut butter, I used the dry roasted peanuts in my pantry and then put into a blender everything else I had: fish sauce, Sriracha, coconut milk, tamarind paste, palm sugar, and a couple cloves of garlic along with some water. I might have also added a dash of soy sauce which was a mistake as it was too salty. Then it was a matter of tasting and adding: more tamarind paste, more palm sugar, lime juice and then Meyer lemon juice.
Finally it tasted yummy to which I then added some chopped peanuts. 
Time to fire up the grill and cook the chicken. I cut the 5 marinated thighs into strips and pierced onto skewer and before laying them over hot charcoal. The great thing about chicken thighs is how moist and juicy they remain even if you think you've overcooked them, and I did not think 3 minutes on each side was enough given the heat of my coals and probably cooked them for a good 10 minutes total. While the chicken was cooking, I rinsed the salted cucumbers and then blotted them dry. I then dressed the cucumbers and some slices of red onion with a vinaigrette of sesame oil, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, chili oil, chili flakes and sugar, stirring the sauce to dissolve. And chicken was done after a couple of flips on the grill.
I microwaved leftover jasmine rice, and so maybe it's a good idea to always have leftover cooked rice in the refrigerator. And I was looking most forward to my peanut sauce.
Time for dinner I called out to hubs.
He unsurprisingly did not dip his chicken into the sauce but said he liked the meal. 
I had noticed that Satay by the Bay serves their chicken with just plain cucumber and onion. I may decide not to dress the cucumber a la the Din Tai Fung salad dressing recipe. But I think some bean sprouts would be a good side dish. Satay chicken sure beats plain grilled chicken.
No comments:
Post a Comment