Crispy, juicy pieces of chicken coated in spicy peanut sauce and stuffed in a bread roll or hunk of baguette, this chicken-satay sandwich makes a very satisfying dinner served with a heap of Asian slaw.
With meals like this, I always bring the elements to the table so each person can assemble their sandwich the way they like it.
I use chicken thighs, which I find more flavoursome, but chicken breasts would work fine too. The original recipe is from Nigel Slater’s Real Food. Continue reading
During our World Cup cook-off last summer, Nigeria was deliciously represented by beef suya. These proved such a hit with the whole family that Nigeria easily topped Group F in the first stage of the tournament, blew past France (salade niçoise, chocolate mousse), and obliterated Mexico (fish tacos) in the quarter-finals, before falling before Colombia’s unstoppable barras de limón.
Recently, I was lucky enough to be given a bag of authentic suya powder from a Nigerian friend and chef. I decided to try chicken suya this time, which proved to be every bit as tasty as the beef version. Continue reading
I was undecided whether to call name this dish prawn satay, but eventually decided against it. Strictly speaking, I think that satay are grilled skewers served with a peanut sauce on the side.
This is a nice way of doing things too, and threading the prawns onto two skewers keeps them flat for grilling and helps prevent the peanut sauce sliding off.
I serve these skewers with a big green salad and a bowl of steamed rice.
To my regret, I have yet to visit Indonesia. The closest I’ve managed to get so far is watching The Year of Living Dangerously – and eating delicious Indonesian dishes like gado gado.
Making gado gado is all about the preparation – boiling potatoes and eggs, steaming green beans, blanching cabbage and beansprouts, frying the tempeh, and achieving a perfect balance of flavours in your peanut sauce. After that, simply a matter of a few moments to pile everything on a plate and tuck in.
Nigerian suya is thinly sliced skewered meat coated in a mixture of spices and ground peanuts and then grilled. Beef suya is common, but goat, chicken, liver, kidney and tripe are also used (and apparently cane rat). After looking at a few different recipes, I came up with my own combination that would work for a family meal. It is typically served with sliced tomato, onion and cabbage. Continue reading
