Back to sanity - School is back - Beef Sate and Corn Cookies

Excuse the absence.  Something about summer that just causes all planning and structure of meals to go out the window.   If it wasn't fast and grill-able, we weren't eating it during July and August.

But, we're back to routine.   Something about September that just makes me want to plan.  This is evidenced by the 30 day meal plan that I made Sept 1 (clearly I have control issues):

yellow is regular meal, green is eating out,
blue is unknown and
orange is Oma recipe day Yes, I'm a freak!

I've been trying to plan on doing a rice table meal, but it is a very overwhelming task.  I didn't want to take it on this month as there is lots to do, but I thought it would be nice to have some Indonesian food for dinner tonight.  So the plan was Sate (grilled beef strips with peanut sauce), corn cookies and for dessert, fried bananas.   I managed to do the sate and the corn cookies, but the bananas got sidelined due to time constraints because of a last minute meeting this afternoon.   Both recipes are part of Oma's rice table instructions, but for the sate, I substituted a different recipe that I wanted to try from my Cook's Monthly magazine.  Here we go!:

Sate - from Cook's Illustrated

Beef
2 tbsp veg oil
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 flank steak halved lengthwise then cut on straight angle into 1/4 inch slices (I used sirloin)

Whisk first three ingredients and add beef.  Toss to coat.  Let stand for at least 30 minutes.   Weave beef onto metal skewers.

Basting sauce
3/4 cup coconut milk
3 tbsp brown sugar
3 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp veg oil
3 shallots
2 stalks lemon grass minced (I didn't have this)
2 tbsp grated fresh ginger
1 1/2 tsp coriander, ground
3/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp salt

Whisk all ingredients in a bowl.  Remove one third that you will use to brush the raw beef with (the rest will be brushed on as the beef cooks)

Put beef on preheated grill.  Brush with the 1/3 of basting sauce.   Cook for 3-4 minutes.   Flip and brush with rest of sauce.  Cook 4 minutes.  Flip one more time and brush again.  Transfer to platter and serve with peanut sauce (below)

Peanut Sauce
1 tbsp veg oil
1 tbsp red thai curry paste
1 tbsp packed dark brown sugar
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup coconut milk
1/3 cup chunky peanut butter (I CAN'T stand chunky peanut butter, so used smooth)
1/4 cup roasted peanuts, chopped
1 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce

Heat oil in pan.  Add curry paste, sugar and garlic.  Stir for one minute.  Add coconut milk and simmer.  Whisk in peanut butter till smooth.  Remove from heat and add remaining ingredients.  Cool to room temperature.   Full disclosure - I didn't want to use more than one can of coconut milk as I'm cheap, so I used 1/2 can for the baste and 1/2 can for the peanut sauce.   Still turned out fine.

Marinating!  

curry paste/brown sugar/garlic sautee.  It smelled awesome!

Corn Cookies - From Oma's Rice Table Collection
1 small can creamed corn
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 tbsp unsweetened coconut
2 eggs, beaten
parsley, pinch
salt to taste
flour

Mix the first 6 ingredients.  Add enough flour to make the batter as thick as pancake mix.   Heat vegetable oil in a fry pan.   Fry small amounts in oil just like a pancake.   Serve immediately.

Sizzlin'

Results


It was a yummy meal.  I served it with basmati rice and a spicy cucumber salad (mixed equal parts of lime juice, fish sauce, sugar and hot sauce with sliced cucumber and crushed peanut).  The kids liked the meat, not fussy about the peanut sauce or the corn cookies.   Willy actually ate the beef, which she isn't usually into as she thought it was bacon as it was sliced so thin.   I'd make the sate again, but not sure about the cookies.

FYI-the cooks magazine spent 1 whole page discussing how to marinade the beef without it turning 'mealy'.  After what appears to be about 2 weeks of experimenting, the author realized that adding fresh ginger to a marinade is the culprit as it breaks down the beef's enzymes.   So now you know, don't add ginger to marinade!!

Not bad for 40 minutes work, huh?

yum!!