Soft Spot for Satay

As I’ve been living on cereal for the last week, due to my complete fullness (see post below), this evening as I popped to the corner shop to buy the evening baguette, I walked past the aisle of oriental sauces and hunger struck. I started to salivate over the huge array of exotic flavours that promised before me, when I stumbled across a lonely jar of satay paste. I was immediately taken back to one family city break in Amsterdam when we came across a charming Cajun café. We ordered a platter of chicken satay brochettes and savoured every delicious mouthful whilst playing dominoes. Ever since I’ve been hooked on their peanutty, coconutty deliciousness!

I snatched the lonely jar up and hurried to the till hugging it close as if it was the Hope Diamond! But arriving home I realised I needed more sustenance that a couple of cubes of meat on a stick, so I did a little experimenting and came up with a surprisingly wonderful

Spicy Satay Stir Fry

Ingredients

2 chicken breasts, chopped into bite size chunks
1 red bell pepper, chopped
¼ cucumber, peeled and diced
1 large onion, chopped
2 tblsp olive oil/ 1 tblsp sesame oil
3 heaped tblsp satay paste
1 hot chilli / 1 tsp chilli paste
2 tblsp soy sauce / 1 tblsp Worcestershire sauce

Method

1. Heat oil gently in a shallow frying pan/wok
2. Add onion and chilli
3. Stir constantly until chilli and onion well blended together
4. Add chicken, repeat blending process
5. When chicken starts to turn white, add pepper, cucumber and satay paste
6. Stir until the satay paste is evenly distributed over the chicken and vegetables
7. Add soy sauce/Worcestershire sauce
8. Simmer over a low heat until chicken cooked through, stirring occasionally

Serves : 4

Preparation time : 5 mins

Cooking time : 5 - 10 mins

I served this with vermicelli noodles, but it would be equally fantastic with any type of noodle or boiled rice.