Friday 22 February 2013

Satay and Gado-Gado

It would be hard for me to identify my favourite meal. It just depends on what sort of mood I'm in. However, this one would definitely be on the shortlist! It is a meal that we often had when we lived in the Far East.  This time Jane made the meal, and I can only claim credit for the photos...

This is the star performer: chicken satay, cooked to perfection on our electric tabletop grill. Kept nice and juicy by their marinade, but with some well-done stripes too! Naturally, beef or pork would work just as well.


In our house, satay is always accompanied by a thick dipping sauce made predominantly of peanut butter, soy sauce and water. And is always served in this beautiful scallop-shaped pottery bowl which we bought many years ago in Penang, Malaysia. (We're creatures of habit, you know!)


There's obviously more sauce there than you would need for 18 satay, so these will come in handy for dipping up the remainder- prawn crackers:


You perhaps know that I don't eat fish or seafood, so you're probably wondering about what I think of prawn crackers. Well, I find that they usually don't taste of prawns - just a sort of salty savouriness, so I'm fine with them.

Then there is the Gado-Gado (literally just "vegetables"). This is what a Westerner would call a salad. Our version is made with some raw ingredients and some cooked ones. We use carrots, green beans, beansprouts, cucumber and watercress, topped with fried beancurd (tofu), cashew nuts and sliced boiled eggs, but of course you can use pretty much anything you fancy.


On the day we ate this meal we had been to our local Chinese supermarket and we couldn't resist buying these: Char Siu Bau:


 These are steamed buns filled with red-cooked pork. As it happened they were rather ordinary, and were completely overshadowed by the home-cooked elements of the meal.

This meal wouldn't be complete (or authentic) without rice so we had some fluffy fragrant steamed Basmati too.


Finally then, the obligatory arty shot!


That just reminds me how nice the fried tofu was. Lovely and golden on the outside but soft and fluffy on the inside.

I think you can see why this meal is a favourite of ours. Interesting, good-looking, healthy and nutritious. We've had it many times before, but I'm sure we'll have it many more times in the future too.

14 comments:

  1. Looks great Mark, I bought some peanut butter before Christmas with a thought to make satay. You have just reminded me.

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  2. It looks delicious. The Gado-Gado looks especially yummy.

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  3. Tofu is another thing I've never tasted.

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  4. I tried tofu, the first and the last time :) I didn't enjoy it at all.

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    1. I agree that on it's own, tofu can be pretty dull, but fried until golden, or covered in salt and chilli, or black bean sauce, and it becomes delicious!

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  5. I'm not really a satay fan. Something about the peanut butter. I'm fine with peanuts in my oriental food, but not peanut butter. But the Gado-Gado looks delicious.

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  6. OMG! You showed us all these good things and no recipes? I'll have to look them up but I appreciate you showing us how wonderful they look.

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  7. My god you two know how to eat!!! I am totally salivating right now.

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  8. I think gado gado is always served with peanut sauce isn't it? Its definitely one of my favourite dishes - I find it quite irrestible. Oh and I agree on tofu - it can be wonderful or it can be really bland.

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  9. Th satay looks great, and the gado gado very refreshing! Surprised about the steamed buns... they look a bit rough.

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  10. Peanut butter, soy sauce and water is all you need to make a satay dipping sauce?! Wow, I will make that. I love chicken skewers with satay sauce but always thought making the sauce would be so difficult! Thanks for sharing!!

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  11. I am rubbing my eyes...rubs again...are you sure your at UK now? hehehe...wow delicious. I be sure to remember you don't eat seafood and allergic to coriander when you drop us a visit here ;).

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  12. Such lovely pictures of food on your blog right now..... It's nearing lunch time and these pics have really got me hungry.

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