Supersized Satay

I had missed out on Ewok's heirloom satay recipe because I had the flu last week. I did not bloghop, and see what I've missed. I googled for one and decided to try it. I am hoping that if my satay did not come out right, I might be able to persuade Ewok to share with me the real deal. At least I have given it a go, so the satay sifu can't say I lack initiative or plain lazy.*wink*

I have been planning to make satay for weeks, but I kept postponing it because I was not feeling up to it. Until yesterday when I decided to give myself a treat after Sunday's superglue fiasco. I followed the internet recipe and in two hours I got 10 giant spicy skewered satay. The satay sticks were so big I was brought down memory lane with lipsmacking thoughts of Sate Ria.

I think everything looked good but it failed miserably at taste. It tasted like my satay was grilled nicely and fell into the sea. Masin. I could almost hear my dad say, " Ni sate B*atak ko apo ni?". There was a problem with the kuah as well. I could not make it runny no matter how much water I added to it. I called my MIL for damage control.

She asked me the lowdown of my recipes and laughed.

"Kuah satay mana ada santan nak oi!" Laa, I followed the recipe maa, it says that I have to put thick coconut milk.

My MIL gave me a short culinary lecture and I learned a few things.

Peanut sauce with santan, cumin and coriander is Kuah Jenganan.

Peanut sauce without santan with cumin, coriander and kenchor (one of those fragrant tubers) is kuah gado gado.

Peanut sauce without santan, cumin and coriander is for tauhu goreng.

Mohariz of Kajang taught me a new word.

Majal

Resipi di internet memang ada yang sengaja nak majalkan orang.

I don't think it's in the Kamus Dewan. Perhaps it's short for men... + dajal+...kan.

Maybe there is such a word, I would not know. He's the one who reads Usman Awang.

So the biggest lesson learned here is that one has to apprentice with a master chef before one can achieve connoissuer standards. MIL told me to keep servings small for elegance and refinement. Food in gargantuan proportions is for kuli-kang. Well, she is the nyonya matriarch, I can't argue with that. I made my satay gigantic because I am perakus, a glutton. Eheh.

My satay sauce apparently had too much peanut so I was told to remove some of the sauce, add more water,oil and lemongrass. I asked her if I could try basting my satay with honey and oil, in hope that the salt will wash off.

Anwar came home and gave it a taste test. There was a long silence before I was given my feedback.

Taste-wise, he said it was really good but he can' t really call this satay. It lacked something.

So I CSI-ed my satay and he agreed that it lacked the woody smoky flavour to it because I oven-grilled it and that there were no fat in the meat. My MIL scored points when he agreed that the satay is too beef-ed up, too supersized for fine dining.

Luckily, my damage control worked, otherwise I'd declare mogok on my oven. Or the kitchen all together. Strangely, he did not give me any points. he usually does.

Twas good, but it wasn't satay.

So, Ewok sayaaaaaaaaaaang, would you be so kind to share with me your precious satay recipe. Pretty please? I could ask kakteh with your permission. Please?