This is a very rare entry for me. Wanna know why? Because I have nothing to say. Can you believe it? ME, nothing to say? That’s like Michelle Duggar not popping out a kid every 1.5 years. In any event, this may be the first time I’m actually grateful for the blog checking lines.
The January 2010 DC challenge was hosted by Cuppy of Cuppylicious and she chose a delicious Thailand-inspired recipe for Pork Satay from the book 1000 Recipe Cookbook by Martha Day. Thanks for a delicious challenge, Cuppy!
To touch on this challenge, one word..YUM. I love Thai food! I hadn’t had any Thai cuisine in a while, so it was a nice change of pace to my dreary meals du jour. However, I thought the marinade for the meat had more of an Indian flavor, but pairing it with peanut buttery sauce goodness helped bring it back to Thailand. Satay is great because you don’t need a fork or knife..just a hand and mouth. Did I ever mention that I love food on sticks?
Not the prettiest marinade, is it? Brings the Exorcist to mind.
OK, I suppose I do have a little more to talk about regarding this Satay challenge. I followed it verbatim, only swaying a bit by making my own sauce, a luscious peanut butter coconut milk based sauce, some of which I poured over udon noodles to serve with the pork satay. Since I added quite a few Thai chile peppers to the pork satay marinade and the peanut coconut milk based sauce, I thought a nice, cooling yogurt dip (completely whited out in the photos. Go figure. See below.) with cilantro, cucumber, lime and salt, would be ideal, and my taste buds agrees 100%.
So, that’s the recipe for the yogurt dip to dunk your satay in. About 2 cups of yogurt (preferably Greek), half a medium cucumber, peeled, seeded and shredded, a handful of chopped cilantro, a squeeze of lime, and salt to taste. Cover and chill under ready to serve.
On another note, I’ve been having a lot of trouble with photographs lately. I’ve ended up with ghastly tones, such as blue, green, gray, even when using a white background, in most of my photos. Yes, I futzed with the white balance, but if you’re a reader of my blog, you know I’m without good natural light, and use 2 Lowel Ego Lights on a regular basis. I don’t know if it’s just one of those crappy phases where nothing seems to turn out right, but if anyone has any tips or ideas when it comes to artificial light, I’d be eternally grateful (well, at least in spirit).
All that being said, I feel like I haven’t been here in a long time, even though it’s only been 3 weeks, but then again, 3 weeks is an eternity in the blogging world, isn’t it? Hmm, I seem to be touching on a lot of ‘eternal’ stuff today. Wow, I’m really reaching for thoughts and text; any text!
Did I mention I also made some thinly sliced beef satay? Yep, I made pork satay one week, and beef satay the next. Are you all yawning yet? I am. Until next time, when I know I’ll have lot more to say!
Pork Satay Recipe with Spicylicious Peanut Butter Coconut Milk Sauce Noodles
- 2 cups of yogurt (preferably Greek)
- Half a medium cucumber, peeled and shredded
- 1 garlic clove minced finely (optional)
- A handful of chopped cilantro
- A squeeze of lime juice
- salt to taste.
- ½ onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- 2 tablespoons lemon or lime juice
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 teaspoons ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon turmeric
- 1 chili pepper
- 1 teaspoon fish sauce
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 lb pork loin
- ¾ cup coconut milk
- 4 tablespoons peanut butter
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon cumin
- ½ teaspoon coriander
- ½ teaspoon hot red chile pepper flakes
- 1 green onion, chopped
- Roasted Broccoli (optional)
- 1 package of Udon noodles
- Combine all the ingredients in a bowl, then cover and chill util ready to serve with the pork satay. I make mine the night before so the flavors really pop!
- Combine all of the above ingredients, except the pork, in a food processor. Pulse 5 or 6 times until a paste is formed. This is your marinade.
- Cut pork into 3 to 4-inch strips. Place tuhe strips in a bowl and pour the marinade over it, making sure all the pork is coated well. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 and up to 24 hours. 30 minutes prior to cooking the pork, soak wooden skewers in warm water (skip this step if you're using metal or steel skewers. )Slide the pork onto the skewers and broil for 10 minutes or until the edges just begin to char, turning halfway through. Serve with peanut sauce (below), and cooked udon noodles coated with some of the peanut sauce.
- Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan. Heat gently, stirring occasionally, until the peanut butter has melted (this won’t take more than 5 minutes). Stir well to incorporate everything. This sauce can be made ahead and reheated, or can be made while the satay cooks.
For the beef satay recipe, click HERE.
I’ve been waiting for you to post and it was worth it. I absolutely LOVE that last photograph and sometimes the picture and do all the explaining for you. Sorry idea about lighting for photographs. As always a fabulous posting and your satay is so well charred love it. Cheers from Audax in Australia.
it looks delicious, love that you liked it and it can only get better if you have it on a skewer.
Hey Lisa! I know the feeling of not getting anything right. But I think the lighting on your pictures is fine.. really good actually 😛 And I definitely agree with Audax on the last picture, it’s great!
Looks delicious! Love the noodles you have under the satay 🙂
Oh ur silence (if any at all…)speaks a thousands words-ok a thousand flavours of eliciousness…
Yeah there’s satay all over blogosphere and im drooling for sure…this recipe rocks…is daring cooks every month too?
Andrew and I had Thai on Sunday at a place we’ve been meaning to try for a while, Andrew had chicken satay that I wanted to steal, lol. Thai is just fantastic!
Even though you didn’t have much to say today, your pictures said plenty, your satay looks fantastic 🙂
Mmmm… meat on a stick… good stuff 🙂
I love the picture of your satay in a cup. It looks so appetizing – noodles too. Really great photos.
Wow, you are quiet ;D. They all look fantastic!!
Pork satay sounds so good and I love the idea of thinly sliced beef satay too, excellent!
So scrumptious looking! I am a big fan of Thai satay!
Cheers,
Rosa
Helloo! I’ve been way out of the loop both on my blog & in the Daring Kitchen. Ack! Great job! Your satay looks amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!
I enjoyed reading your blog. Beautiful shots even if you think otherwise=;) I too stayed w/ the recipe except for some little tweaking like lime instead of lemon and cilantro instead of coriander.
Thank you for the a-ha moment! i made too much of the peanut sauce, didn’t like to throw them away so it’s in the fridge waiting for me to use them again..the udon noodles will be a great idea to use the extra sauce.
Yours looks delicious…I was equally happy with the flavors of this challenge, and I am equally frustrated with lighting!
Lisa,
Love your photos and your plating! Beautiful job, as always…
Looks yummy. 🙂
Wow a great post! Love satay and this looks amazing! Your photos look great, too. Sorry you’ve been having problems though but they all look beautiful.
You always go above and beyond!! Both look great!
Hey stranger. I have had nothing but coffee this morning and now I am surfing food blogs. Bad Idea.
Oh and it is snowing so for me to make some more satay means shoveling my way to the grill, again.
So for now I will just drool over yours and the deilicious looking udon.
It looks so yummy served over noodle! I’d like to try the beef version.
The opening and closing pictures of your post rock my world. I’m so happy you made this TWICE!!!! 😀 😀 😀
It looks like you’ve still managed to get more light than I; your pictures look great!
O haha… you talk a lot for someone who has nothing to say! I plan on making a post about shooting in artificial light and white balance, that kind of stuff soon. Not sure if it is gonna be of any help (but then I haven’t written it yet…lol) but you might want to check it out if the time comes! And the photos here are still looking yummy to me!
Holy smokes! You WERE unnaturally quiet! Lisa are you okay? Not only were you quiet but you didn’t even do your over the top, take take it to the next level and make this easy-ish challenge a tough one adaptions! 🙂
~ingrid
While it may not be as awe inspiring as your lighthouse gingerbread creation, these satays look wonderful! The yogurt cucumber sauce is a good idea, too, if you use a lot of heat (chilies). Glad you are back 🙂
YUM!!!!
My favorite ever. I’ll eat with lots of steam jasmine rice, oh, not to forget the spicy peanut sauce too.
MMMMM,…what a georgous & awesome looking dinner!! I so love your unique presentation!!
Waw!
Great job Lisa and I totally love your interpretation of every single challenge. Keep it up!
Gorgeous satay and noodle bed/cup!
A few months back, I went through a phase in my kitchen where everything I cooked ended with a disaster of some sort or another, burnt vegetables and a tart that was accidently knocked off the counter. Luckily, my bad kitchen mojo passed and I laughed it off, later on…
Photo tips: If you want detail in both your highlights and shadows, try bracketing your exposures for each shot, before setting up the next. I’m not sure what kind of camera you’re using, but here is a great link to answer most your photo questions: http://whiteonricecouple.com/photography-travels/
As for white balance, the best way to adjust your white balance is before you begin shooting. If you have a florescent light setting start there (I think those are the bulbs you’re using with the EGO lights). Set up your shot with lights, food, and all and use either a piece of white paper, white foam core, or white poster board and photograph it until and adjust your white balance settings until you see pure white. Now your set for the until shoot.
Hope this helps…
Lol! I didn’t have much to say either about this challenge, so I just blackened the page with irrelevant tidbits and barely related anecdotes…
Anyways, great grilling job on those chicken satay! And the udon noodles add a Japanese note to this already international dish!
I think you’re being way too hard on your pictures, they look beautiful, and I might not have noticed the “white-out” yogurt if you hadn’t drawn attention to it. 🙂 Unfortunately, I have no advice to give, I’ve got my hands full getting used to my new SLR and getting, you know, pictures that AREN’T blurry in all the wrong places. 🙂
Gah, I’ve been suffering though a photographic woes phase myself. So difficult when you have little to no natural light. My apartment is like a bat cave … so I feel your pain!
Love the satay and the noodles though – the more chilies the better. Yum!
BTW I’ve given you an award. It’ll be up shortly on my blog. Thanks for brightening my day!
Hello there daaaaaaahling! I’ve left an award for you on my blog, come check it out.
Have a wonderful weekend.
*kisses* HH
Lisa, your sate look the best. Very appetizing, and delicious!
LOL at Michelle Duggar comment! 😛 Yum thatlooks delicious. Thai is one of those cuisines I eat a lot but don’t cook a lot so this recipe will come in handy! 🙂
Looks nothing short of delicious! The photos look great too…?
That looks real good Lisa. Especially the super thin ones. I think your photos look great, but then I get blue hues even in natural light!
Mmm, looks good to me! I especially love the shot of the skewers in the glass of noodles. I also have terrible light, but your pictures always look great.
I agree this recipe is so tasty! and i love it that you served them with noodles. i might try the beef satay next time too!
oh wow, this is a simple and delicious meal…
gorgeous photos LIZ, the nice grilled marks… the beef also looks so delicious.
This looks phenomenal, Lis. You KNOW Thai food is my weakness!
Dont’ worry Lisa – totally understand – when a dish looks this good – the picture is worth a thousand words! Well done on your challenge.
Lisa I love Thai food. I’d prefer chicken but the combo of dipping into the creamy yogurt would be delicious. Nice job!
I love thai food as well and woowww yours looks so yummy, mmm, the noodles look extrememy tasty with the meat. And yes i would have to agree…food strangely is far better on bamboo skewers!!
I love Thai food, and your satay looks absolutely delicious…so tasty that I can almost taste it 🙂 One of my favorite noodle are the thick ones…yummie! By the way, great pictures…
Hi again Lisa, just left you an award on my blog to pick up. I don’t mind at all if you aren’t into these things and don’t pick it up, just think of it as an e-hug 🙂
Hee!
Whatever the photo issues, they still look yummy!
YUMMO..oh wait, you hate that term, don’t you? Ha! Those satays look yummy, although I would have preferred chicken, like you mentioned the other night.
love how you wrote “white out” on your photo 🙂
Glad you found my “how to segment oranges” video helpful!
Your DC challenge turned out looking delicious and your photography as well. Wish I had a serving right now!
I’m already hungry and your post is making me even hungrier! Your satay looks scrumptious and I really like your presentation in the noodle filled glass:)
Even when you don’t think your photos look good, they still are great! 🙂 Love the Satay–ohh, I just love Thai food and these look delicious!