1 kg chicken thigh fillets cut into 1x 2 x 3cm pieces
or
1 kg beef

•  4 Tbs brown sugar
•  11/2 tsp salt
•   2 Tbs turmeric
•   3 Tbs ground coriander (untoasted)
•   1 Tbs ground cumin (untoasted)
•   5 sticks lemongrass sliced finely

1.  Mortar and pestle the lemongrass. I do insist on this over blitzing in a spice grinder as one of my pet peeves is little splinters of lemongrass in my mouth. The mortar and pestle works well because it very effectively bruises and softens the fibers as opposed to continuing to chop it into smaller little splinters. If you don’t have one, blitz away.

2.  Marinate the meat overnight in a snap-lock bag making sure all the air is pushed out first or even better still if you have a crivac machine, the marinate will further penetrate the meat in such a snug environment.

3.  Skewer the meat and barbeque or grill very briefly - only till meat is just cooked as you want it nice and juicy still. This is the reason the meat pieces are cut into fairly small pieces.

Homemade Satay Sauce

• 1 cup shallots or spanish onion chopped
• 10 dries red chillies soaked in boiling water till soft
•  5 cloves garlic
•  2 Tbs tamarind paste (from jar or you can do the *‘proper way’)
•  1 Tbs sugar
•  1 tsp salt
•  3 Tbs veg or peanut oil
•  1/4 cup of roasted, crushed peanuts

1.  Place all ingredients except the peanuts and oil into a blender and pulverize to a paste. If the paste doesn’t seem to be moving add 1 - 2 Tbs water or you can do it the old fashioned way and mortar and pestle it to a fine paste.

2.  Heat oil in a heavy bottom saucepan or wok till medium heat and pour paste in. Stir fry continuing to make sure bottom isn’t catching till there is very little steam rising from the sauce and you can definitely see it caramelising and smell it getting fragrant.

3.  Remove from heat and stir in crushed nuts just before serving. You can make this a couple days ahead of time and keep in a glass jar in the fridge and then re heat to serve.