Chicken Satay with Cashew Sauce

Hei I am back. Busy with work recently, had not been cooking and creating dishes recently. The recipe i am going to post is a recipe i like especially the sauce. I cant have peanut so this is really an excellent replacement for satay sauce. It is actually a modified recipe from Masterchef Magazine. However, the satay are not as nice as the one selling in Malaysia's stall, they at least can satisfy my craving. Hope you will like it too.

Chicken Satay with Cashew Sauce

Ingredient:
800g chicken breast of thigh, cut into 2cm x 2cm cube

For marinate
½ cup light soy sauce
¼ cup honey
1 orange, juice
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 thumb size ginger, finely grated
2 tbs oil (I use olive oil)
1 tsp sesame oil

For Cashew Sauce
1 cup roasted unsalted cashew
1 tbs oil
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tbs fresh chilli flake
180ml coconut milk
½ lemon, juice
2 tbs honey
2 tbs light soy sauce

Method:
1. Combine all the marinate ingredient in a bowl. Add chicken and stir to coat. Season with pepper, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 3 hours (overnight will be the best)
2. To make sauce, using a zip-lock bag and coarsely crush cashews (alternatively, process the nuts in a food processor until coarsely chopped). Place oil and garlic and chilli in a saucepan over medium-high heat and stir for 30 seconds or until fragrant. Add nuts, coconut milk, lemon juice, honey and soy sauce. Bring to boil, then simmer, stirring until slightly thickened. Season and set aside.
3. Preheat oven to 200oC (or chargrill pan or barbecue on high). Reserve the marinate, thread 3-4 pieces of chicken onto each skewer. Line a baking tray with a lightly greased aluminium foil, then place the skewers without overlapping each other. Cook for 15 minutes then turn and brush with the reserved marinate and cook for another 10 minutes.
4. Reheat the sauce if you like, if not they are ready to be serve with steam rice or salad.

You can make salad as you like. For the simplest one, you can eat with fresh cucumber or tomatoes. Here is a salad i ate with the satay.

Cucumber and tomatoes salad

1 cucumber, cut into long strips
1 tomato, cut into wedges
Pinch of sugar
2 tbs olive oil
1 tbs balsamic vinegar
1 tbs fresh chilli flake (can use the leftover from the sauce)

Method:
1. Combine all ingredient in a bowl (it is so easy !!!)

I had made this twice and I will never get enough. For those who are allergic to peanut, this is really a good replacement. Enjoy Reading !!

Tangy Lemon Cupcake with Liquid Chocolate

For those who love lemon or cant resist the aroma of lemon, these cupcakes are a good blast. If you are a chocoholic like me, blend in the liquid chocolate is sure a good choice as lemon and chocolate make a perfect team.

Some of my friend like to eat them without the icing but other do like to eat with the icing. You can take out the liquid chocolate from the recipe if you only want to make Tangy Lemon Cupcake. Those cupcakes are good to be eaten at the same day they are prepared. They are not really suitable for storing in fridge. It dint taste great after fridge and reheat from the microwave.

All right, let's start the recipe:

Tangy Lemon Cupcake with Liquid Chocolate (make 8)

Ingredient:
1 cup plain/wholemeal flour
½ tbs baking powder
1 lemon rind
½ cup caster sugar
60g butter, melted
1 egg, lightly beaten
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
1/8 cup milk
Liquid chocolate:
150 g dark chocolate
Pinch of salt
100 ml sour cream

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180oC (conventional) or 160oC (fan) and line paper muffin case in muffin tray
2. Sift flour and baking powder in a bowl, then mix in lemon rind and sugar
3. Whisk butter, egg, lemon juice and milk in a separate bowl
4. Slowly pour in the wet mixture into dry mixture, mix them with a metal spoon until just combined (don’t over mix the mixture)
5. Divide the mixture into 2 batches
6. Place the first mixture evenly into the 8 muffin cases
7. Drop a tablespoon of liquid chocolate on the mixture in muffin cases
8. Top up the muffin case with second batch of mixture (the muffin cases should be around quarter to half full)
9. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a metal knife goes in coming out clean
10. Completely cool the muffin on cooling rack (around 20-30 minutes)
11. Using the leftover liquid chocolate to do the icing

To make liquid chocolate:
1. Melt the chocolate in a glass bowl over hot water (not boiling water and the bowl does not touch the water)
2. Remove the bowl from heat then stir in salt and soured cream, stir until well-mixed
3. (optional) if the mixture contain lump, microwave for 30-60s until no lump and with consistency

I did make these for a birthday of my friend. They can be eaten everytime you want as a snack. Hope you will like this recipe. See you next time.