V is for Venuzeula

Well, visiting Venezuela was a welcome treat in the blahs of February! Delicious, lightly spiced food, great apps and drinks and a terrific desert!

The drink of the evening was a pineapple themed drink from the LCBO that looked like it might be complimentary to the Spanish/Mexican type tapas that we started with. It's the Lime Vodka Sunset (http://bit.ly/5SfGov) and is made of:

1 oz Lime Twist Vodka
1/2 oz Coconut Run
4-5 oz pineapple juice

Mix all together and garnish with a wedge of lime.

Venezuelan Appetizers:

Chunky-style Guasacaca

Ingredients:

·3-4 large ripe avocados

·1 large onion

·1 green pepper

·1 red pepper

·1/2 cup chopped tomato

·3-4 cloves garlic

·1/3 cup olive oil

·1/4 cup vinegar

·1/4 cup chopped parsley

·Salt and pepper to taste

·Tobasco or hot pepper sauce to taste

Preparation:

1.     Mash one of the avocados. Chop the other avocados and mix them with the mashed avocado in a bowl. Stir in the vinegar and olive oil. 

2.     Finely chop the red and green peppers, tomato, and the onion and add to the avocado. 

3.     Mince the garlic and add to the mixture. 

4.     Season the guasacaca with salt, pepper, and tobasco sauce to taste. Makes approximately 2 cups

Chunky-style Guasacaca - http://bit.ly/13U5QWl

Pico de Gallo Venezuelan style

Tequeños - Venezuelan Fried Cheese Sticks (no photo)

2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons butter, chilled
1 egg
1/2 cup water
12 ounces queso blanco cheese, farmers cheese, or other firm, salty cheese that melts
Vegetable oil for frying
Prepare the dough: Place the flour in a medium bowl along with the sugar and the salt and whisk together. Cut the butter into 1/2 inch pieces and place them in the bowl with the flour. Add the egg. Use your fingers to mix the egg and butter into the flour until the mixture is sandy and crumbly, and the butter is in very small pieces. Stir 1/4 cup of water into the flour/butter mixture using a fork. Add more water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until the mixture starts to come together as a dough. Knead the dough in the bowl several times, adding more water if it is overly crumbly. The dough should be soft and kneadable but will appear somewhat shaggy and not perfectly blended. Cover with saran wrap and let rest for 20-30 minutes (Dough can be prepared ahead of time and chilled in the refrigerator until ready to use).
Choose a firm, salty white cheese that does not turn completely gooey when melted. Queso blanco cheese, Salvadoran quesillo, and farmers cheese work well. Cut the cheese into 3-4 inch long sticks, about 1/2 inch square. Depending on the size of the cheese block you start with, you should have about 24 sticks.

http://bit.ly/13pEVhJ

Dough for the seafood yumminess (pupusas)

Seafood yumminess

Frying the pupusas

Unfortunately, we can't seem to find the recipe for these little, delicious yummy things. However, it was just a chickpea flour basic dough with chopped shrimp, parsley, tomato and chicken stock and salt/pepper. You reduce the seafood with the stock and then fill the dough. Then deep fry in coconut oil (or vegetable oil if you like).

Entrees
The arepas are a staple of Veneuzelan cooking and I would make them again in a heartbeat! Below the recipes follows from http://epi.us/kvhBQc.

Reina Pepiada Arepas

Arepas define Venezuelan cooking. These thick cornmeal patties are griddled, then baked, and then stuffed while warm with anything from white cheese to this zesty chicken salad with avocado mayonnaise (Johan Santana’s first choice). The salad is named in honor of Susana Duijm, Miss World in 1955 and a popular Venezuelan celebrity. (Reina means "queen" in Spanish, and pepiada is perhaps most politely translated as "curvy.") 

Filling

·2 6-ounce skinless, boneless chicken breasts

·1/2 small onion, sliced

·Salt and freshly ground black pepper

·1 ripe Hass avocado, pitted, peeled, and coarsely chopped

·1/4 cup mayonnaise

·1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar, plus more to taste

·2 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro

·2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley

·1/2 jalapeño, seeded and minced

·2 garlic cloves, minced

·1/2 cup seeded and diced (1/4-inch) red bell pepper

·2 tablespoons finely chopped red onion

·1 scallion, white and green parts, finely chopped

Arepas

·3 cups lukewarm water, or as needed

·1 1/4 teaspoons salt

·3 cups Venezuelan cornmeal, or as needed *

·2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon canola or vegetable oil, plus more for the griddle

Preparation

1 To make the filling, place the chicken breasts and onion in a medium saucepan and add enough cold water to cover by 1 inch. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered, until the chicken is cooked through, about 15 minutes. Remove the chicken from the saucepan and let cool completely. Tear the chicken into shreds.

2 Mash the avocado, mayonnaise, and vinegar together in a medium bowl with an immersion blender or large fork until smooth. Stir in the cilantro, parsley, jalapeno, and garlic. Add the chicken, red pepper, red onion, and scallion and mix together. Season with salt and pepper. Taste and add more vinegar to give the filling a pleasant, but not sour, tang. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.
3 To make the arepas, stir 3 cups lukewarm water and the salt together in a large bowl to dissolve the salt. Gradually add 3 cups cornmeal, mixing with your fingers to dissolve any lumps, adding enough to make a soft dough that holds its shape without cracking when molded. Set dough aside to rest for 3 minutes. Add the oil and work it in with your hands, adding cornmeal or water to return the dough to the proper consistency.
4 Divide the dough into 6 equal portions. Shape each into a 4-inch diameter disk, about 1 inch thick. Transfer to a baking sheet.
5 Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly oil a large nonstick skillet or griddle and heat over medium heat.
6 In batches, place the arepas in the skillet. Cook until the underside is a splotchy golden brown, about 4 minutes. Turn and brown the other side. Return arepas to the baking sheet.
7 When all of the arepas are browned, transfer them directly to the oven rack (without the baking sheet). Bake until the surfaces of the arepas have formed a taut skin—if you rap your fingers on one, it will feel and sound like a drum. Return arepas to the baking sheet and let cool slightly. Split each arepa in half and fill with the chicken mixture. Serve warm.

Arepas

 Venezuelan Beef Stew

All sorts of flavours abound in this stew since there are so many types of meat. Do yourself a favour and hit up the butcher shop before making this so you can buy in the exact quantity...otherwise you'll have lots of different meats left. Or, just make a double batch with the extra! It would be worth it and would freeze well also. http://www.food.com/recipe/venezuelan-beef-stew-481688

5 slices bacon, cut into small pieces
1 lb round steak
1/4 cup flour
3/4 cup cooked ham, cubed
2 1/2 ounces chorizo sausage, halved lengthwise then sliced 1/2-inch thick
1 (4 ounce) package pepperoni, sliced
1 (15 ounce) can tomatoes, chopped
1/2 cup green pepper, chopped
1/4 cup celery, chopped
1 cup beef broth
1/4 cup sherry wine
1 1/2 teaspoons cilantro, minced
1 1/2 teaspoons steak sauce (A1 sauce preferred)
1 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 1/2 cups potatoes, peeled cubed
1 cup white pearl onion
1/2 cup carrot, sliced
1 cup frozen peas
Directions:
1 In a dutch oven, cook bacon until crispy. Set aside but reserve drippings.
2 Trim fatty edges from round steak and then cube steak into 1 inch pieces. Toss beef meat with flour to coat.
3 Brown beef in the drippings. Drain fat and then stir in next 13 ingredients. Bring to a boil then reduce heat.
4 Cover and simmer for 1 hour. Add potatoes, onions and carrots. Cover and cook for 35 more minutes. Stir in the peas the last 5 minutes.
5 Sprinkle with bacon.

Venezuelan beef stew

 Dessert was a coconut flan that while appearing finicky was surprisingly easy to make. I also wanted to do baked plantain but figured that we always have too much food on our hands so we probably didn't need an extra dessert. Here's a link to a recipe for them anyway: bit.ly/fGwAcM

The coconut flan (picured below) is from Epicurious.com: epi.us/TbKr33
The Venezualan name is Quesillo de Coco.

For caramel

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup water

For flan

3 1/2 cups whole milk, divided

1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

3 large eggs

1/4 cup sweetened flaked coconut

3 tablespoons dark rum

Equipment: 12 (4-ounce) ramekins

Make caramel:
Bring sugar and water to a boil in a small heavy saucepan over medium heat, stirring until sugar has dissolved, then wash down any sugar crystals from side of pan with a pastry brush dipped in cold water. Boil, without stirring, swirling pan occasionally so caramel colors evenly, until dark amber.

Immediately pour into ramekins and swirl so caramel coats bottom of each, then put ramekins in a large roasting pan.

Make flan:
Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle.

Blend 2 cups milk with remaining flan ingredients in a blender until smooth, about 1 minute. Transfer to a bowl and stir in remaining 1 1/2 cups milk, then divide among ramekins.

Bake flan in a water bath until just set but still wobbly in center, 1 to 1 1/4 hours.

Remove ramekins from water bath and cool slightly on a rack, at least 15 minutes (flan will continue to set as it cools).

Just before serving, run a thin knife around each flan, then invert onto plates.

Coconut flan

 Also notable...and not so Venezuelan...

Casualties

YUM! Hope you try some of these recipes!

USA - exactly one year ago and somewhat forgotten...

Hi folks,

We're back online now and digging into the memory banks for our trip to the United States of America.  Since one of our gang is a true American, the meal was All-American as Apple Pie (which we did have for desert). However, since this happened so long ago, there are a few blank spots. There aren't really any recipes for these as many were just done off the cuff but we didn't want to leave "U" out of the alphabet. This is what we can piece together so far:

Appetizers - Beer, ribs, beer, potato skins, beer bacon-wrapped jalapeno poppers, beer and more beer. There may have been some Californian reds mixed in there in the beverage department, too....

Potato Skins

Stuffed jalapenos (with cream cheese) 

The end of the ribs...they went fast!

 Main course - Ribs (different recipe, not pictured) and chicken wings, white hots (from Wegman's), potato salad.

Wings

Close up of chunky potato salad

Desert - Good Ol' Fashioned Apple Pie

Unfortunately, the only pictures I took were in the making of the pie, not once it was complete!

Steve & Abby's Thai food blog entry

Friends who are travelling in Thailand by bike write a hilarious blog entry on street food in the country. Just makes me a tiny bit jealous!

http://bit.ly/11RIhsg

Enjoy!

Thai feature drink and dessert

After giving ourselves some time to recover and digest the Thai apps, we moved on to dinner! Forgive me, but I can't for the life of me remember what wine we had to drink. As I recall, there aren't too many Thai wines around so I'm guessing there were a bunch of reds that went with spicy food.

On the other hand, the feature drink of the evening was rather more-ish. I would totally make it another time and likely double the recipe. Six people can go through it quickly!

Lemongrass-Lime Leaf Sparkler 

(with gin added) from epicurious.com
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Lemongrass-Lime-Leaf-365192

1/4 cup lemon zest (from 6 lemons)

1/4 cup lime zest (from 8 limes)

20 kaffir lime leaves

2 stalks lemongrass, roughly chopped

3/4 cup Simple Syrup, divided (1 cup sugar, 1 cup water)

6 cups soda water, divided

Directions:Combine citrus zest, lime leaves, lemongrass, and 2 cups water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 5 minutes. Strain lemongrass mixture into a jar and chill. Fill a 12 ounce glass with ice cubes. Add 2 tablespoons lemongrass mixture and 1 tablespoon simple syrup. Top with soda water (about 1/2 cup) and stir to combine. Repeat to make 11 more sodas.

Or, just double the recipe and enjoy...

Mango and Sticky Rice 

1 peeled mango - add on top of Coconut Milk Sticky Rice

Coconut Milk Sticky Rice - Kow Neuw Moon

1 cup coconut milk
2 pinches salk
1 cup Sticky Rice
2 tablespoons sugar

The Traditional Method Using a Steamer: Soak the sticky rice in enough water to cover the rice for at least an hour and even overnight. Take your steamer, put water in the bottom and cover the steam section with cheese cloth or muslin cloth. Pour the sticky rice on the cheesecloth, cover with the lid and put it on the stove on medium to high heat. The sticky rice should take about a 20 minutes of steaming to cook and will become translucent when done.

The Microwave Method: I learned this method from my friend who has mastered microwave cooking to such a high level of proficiency that she has earned the title 'the microwave queen'.

Soak the sticky rice for 10 minutes in warm water in a bowl. Soaking the rice is very important. I have tried this method without soaking the rice first and it was disastrous. The rice was undercooked and inedible. The water level should be just above the rice, which comes out to be 1 cup of rice and a little over 1 cup of water (about 10% more). I recommend using a non-plastic container because you may melt the plastic in the microwave. Cover the bowl with a dish and cook in microwave for at full power 3 minutes. Stir the ricearound to move the rice from the top to the bottom. You will notice that some of the rice is translucent or cooked and some still has white center or the uncooked portion.

Heat it up again for another 3 minutes. Check and see if it is done. When cooked, all the rice should be translucent. If it needs more cooking, I recommend heating up and checking every 3 minutes or so. How long it takes to cook really depends on your microwave.

Putting it together: Heat the coconut milk in a pot over medium heat. Stir constantly and let the coconut milk simmer. Hard boiled coconut milk will curdle. Add sugar and salt. Remove from heat. Pour 3/4 of the hot coconut milk over the hot sticky rice. Let it sit for 5 minutes. The hot sticky rice will absorb all thecoconut milk. The rice should be a little mushy. Spoon the rest of the coconut milk on top of the rice at serving time.

http://www.thaitable.com/thai/recipe/mango-on-sticky-rice

Thai entrees

We're carefully catching up on the meal from Thailand and now is the time for the entrees. I'll post the feature drink and the dessert in a separate post. The internet was a wonderful resource here since there are a plethora of Thai recipes available. However, one should always wonder if each part is exactly authentic. Or not. The Curried Beef Stew is not exactly authentic, but the Thai spice influence is unmistakable. And I would totally make it again, just as a weeknight dinner. Also, just a reminder that I have cut and pasted these recipes and then have added my own comments within - if you want the unadulterated version, please use the link provided at the end of each recipe.

We also had Tom Yum Goong soup (sweet and sour) to start off the entree menu. This is my "go to" in many Thai restaurants. The local Kingston restaurant called Ly's Place (run by Ly and his family - Ly had worked previously for Chez Piggy restaurant which is featured in the Where to Eat in Canada food guide) has a KILLER version of this soup. It's simply amazing and even has little spheres of Thai sausage in it. If you ever come to YGK, you have to check our Ly's!

FYI, when I've made it in the past I've frozen the surplus. It has tasted just fine out of the freezer, too, when reheated gently on the stove.

Anyway, the Tom Yum Goong looked like this:

Tom Yum Goong Soup

And you can make it by following these instructions:

Tom Yum Goong - Sour & Spicy Lemongrass Shrimp Soup Recipe

• 4 cups of water
• 2 stalks fresh lemongrass, trim off the very end of the root and smash with the side of a cleaver of chef's knife; cut into 1 inch pieces; or 2 pc dried
• 3 slices fresh galangal root (smashed) or 2 pc dried
• 3 fresh kaffir lime leave or 4 pc dried
• 1 tbsp. tamarind paste, with or without seeds
• 1 tbsp. fish sauce, Golden Boy preferred
• 3/4 lb shrimps, medium to large size, shelled and de-veined; butterfly if desired
• 12 fresh Thai chili peppers, whole or 2 medium sized jalepenos, cut lengthwise into 1/4-inch strips.
• 1/2 small white onion, cut 1/4 inch slices
• 2 tbsp. roasted chili paste (nam prik pao)
• 1 (16 oz.) can straw mushrooms, drained and rinsed
• 1 small ripe tomato, cut into wedges 1/4 inch thick
• 1 small lime, squeezed
• 2 sprigs fresh cilantro

Preparation

Bring water to boil over high heat in a medium-sized saucepan. Add the lemon grass, galangal, kaffir lime leaf, fish sauce and tamarind paste (break apart the tamarind paste with your fingers as you add it). Add the shrimp, bring to a boil and cook 3 minutes. Add the onion, nam prik pao and straw mushrooms. Boil for another 7 minutes until the shrimp is cooked through. Add the chile peppers and tomatoes. Turn off the heat. Add the lime juice. Taste to adjust the seasoning, adding fish sauce to taste. Garnish with cilatantro if desired and serve.

Serves 3 to 4 (but we stretched it to 6). 

http://www.templeofthai.com/recipes/tom_yum_goong.php

Chicken Curry - Gang Gai แกงไก่

• 
  

  
  

  1 chicken breast

  1 cup coconut milk

  1 tablespoon red curry paste

  1/2 lb eggplant

  2 tablespoons fish sauce

  4-5 kaffir lime leaves Optional, but you really SHOULD put them in!

  3-5 sprigs Thai basil Also, optional but necessary in my opinion...

  3 cups water

  Cut up the chicken into bite size pieces. If you have this dish in Thailand, you will see that the chicken comes with bones. All parts such as legs and thighs can be used. The bones make the curry more flavourful. I could only find regular eggplant but Thai eggplant is usually called for in this recipe.

  Pour half of the coconut milk into a large pot, over low to medium low heat. Add the red curry paste. Break up the paste and mix it with coconut milk. Stir constantly. Lower the heat if it splatters too much. Add chicken when you see red oil bubbling on top. Stir and coat chicken with curry sauce. Add the eggplant when chicken starts to turn white. Add the rest of thecoconut milk and water and the fish sauce. Let it boil until all the eggplant pieces turn dark and tender. The longer you boil the curry, the thicker the curry becomes because the eggplant disintegrates and thickens the sauce. Pull the center stem off from the kaffir lime leaves and add them to the curry. Add the basilleaves just before you serve and make sure the leaves are submerged quickly in the curry to preserve the color.

  Serve hot with rice. If you prefer, use rice noodles. http://www.thaitable.com/thai/recipe/chicken-curry

  
  
  
  

Chicken Curry

Curried Beef Stew

Curry paste:

• 6 dried puya or 3 dried guajillo chiles, stemmed, seeded
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 lemongrass stalk, bottom 4" only, tough outer layer removed, cut into 1" pieces
• 2 tablespoons sliced peeled fresh galangal
• 2 tablespoons sliced peeled fresh turmeric
• 1/2 cup chopped shallots
• 1/4 cup halved garlic cloves
• 1 tablespoon Thai shrimp paste

Stew:

• 2 pounds trimmed beef chuck, cut into 1 1/2"–2" cubes
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce, preferably Thai thin soy sauce (such as Healthy Boy)
• 2 tablespoons ground dried Thai chiles
• 9 cups beef broth, preferably low-salt
• 1 cup halved shallots
• 3 medium carrots, peeled, halved lengthwise, cut crosswise into 1/4 inch thick half-moons (about 1 cup)
• 6 fresh or frozen kaffir lime leaves
• Chopped fresh cilantro
• Thinly sliced Thai basil

Directions: 

For curry paste:
In a mortar, pound chiles and salt with a pestle until pulverized, about 5 minutes. Add ingredients one by one in order listed, fully pulverizing each before adding the next, about 15 minutes total. DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 week ahead; cover and chill.

For stew: 
Combine curry paste, beef, soy sauce, and ground dried chiles in a pot; stir to evenly coat beef. Cook, stirring occasionally, over medium heat for 5 minutes. Add broth and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until beef is tender but not falling apart, 2–2 1/2 hours.

Stir in shallots, carrots, and lime leaves. Simmer until vegetables are just tender, about 10 minutes. If broth is too salty, add water a few tablespoonfuls at a time.

Garnish with cilantro and basil.

Check the epicurious.com webpage for wine pairing suggestions!

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Curried-Beef-Stew-380591

Curried Beef Stew

Thai appetizers

Hello out there, world! I sincerely apologize for the lack of consistency in our posts here. All is entirely my fault as life just got in the way.

So, without further ado, here are the recipes and photos of the Thai appetizers from our last meeting of the AlphaGourmet club back in April 2012.

We had several appetizers to start off the evening including Thai spring rolls and chicken satays with Ajaad (cucumber) salad. The spring rolls were wrapped in home made spring roll wrappers that were way better than any kind you can buy in Kingston. All recipes are probably what you think about most frequently when thinking about Thai food so they can really satisfy a craving! Here's the recipe and a photo of the spring rolls before they were cooked:

Home made spring roll wrappers

Ingredients:

1 cup rice flour
4 tablespoon regular white flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon cooking oil
2 cups fresh water

Directions:

1. Sift all the dry ingredients together twice.
2. In a separate bowl, mix the eggs, oil and water . Then pour this mixture into the dry ingredients to form a batter. Mix thoroughly to get all the lumps out.
3. Cover and set aside in a cool place for an hour.
4. Heat a non-stick frying pan and drizzle or spray a little cooking oil on it.
5. Pour in a little batter and quickly swirl in around to make a thin pancake. You don't have to flip it to cook the other side and it should not brown. Take it out of the pan when it looks like it has set.
http://www.essortment.com/homemade-spring-roll-wrapper-recipe-13943.html

The stuffing for the spring rolls was made in two batches. One was to make the sausage itself and the other was to get the other Asian flavours to meld together.

Thai Spring Rolls Ingredients

1 package of spring roll wrappers (use 24 wrappers)

100 g of bean thread noodles (soaked in cold water for 30 minutes, drained and cut into 2 inches.)
2 cups of grated carrot
2 cups of shredded green cabbage
½ cup of wood ear mushrooms (soaked and sliced)
1 cup of diced onion
2 tablespoons of thin soy sauce
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of pepper
1 tablespoon of cornstarch

2 tablespoons of water
3 cup of vegetable oil

Directions:

1.  Add 3 tablespoons of oil in the wok on medium high heat. Put the vegetables and noodles into the hot oil and season the filling mixture with soy sauce, salt and pepper. Sauté the ingredients until the filling is well done.
For this exploration, I made two fillings: sweet red pepper with bok choy (and the vegetables listed here) and shrimp with mushroom (baby bella and shitake). For both I used bean sprouts as I couldn’t find those bean noodles To counteract some of the earthiness of the mushrooms with the shrimp, I put a splash of pineapple juice and lime as citrus always enhances seafood and the sweetness of the pineapple controlled the mushroom and bean sprout mixture.
2. Let the filling cool down
3. In a small bowl, combine some cornstarch and water until mixed well together
4. Lay a spring roll wrapper with the point up on the counter and add 2 tablespoons of the filling on the bottom of the wrapper.
5. Fold the bottom edge up over the filling and insert behind the filling. Then fold the right edge and the left edge to the middle and roll tightly until the end of the wrapper.
6. Seal the roll with mixed cornstarch and repeat until finished.
7. This recipe should make about 24 rolls.
8. Heat the oil in the wok over high heat. Deep fry spring rolls until golden brown and remove the rolls to paper towels to blot the extra oil. Serve hot with plum sauce.



The completed spring rolls:

Ajaad Salad Ingredients

200 ml White vinegar

40 gm Sugar

1 tsp Salt

50 gm Cucumber, quartered and sliced

50 gm Shallots, sliced

2 Fresh red chilies, sliced

Directions: Mix together the vinegar, sugar and salt. Bring to the boil and simmer until the quantity is halved. When ready to serve, mix the remaining ingredients and pour over the reduced sauce. http://www.your-thai-recipe.com/thai-salads/vegetable/ajaad-salad.html Ajaad Salad (mostly eaten by the time the photo was taken...sorry!) Thai Chicken Satay Ingredients (60 sticks) 1 lb of chicken breast (sliced into strips about 1” x 2”) 1 tablespoon sweet black soy sauce ½ cup of coconut milk 60 bamboo skewers Marinade 3 cloves of garlic 1 onion (chopped) 1 teaspoon of cumin 1 teaspoon of turmeric 1 teaspoon of coriander seeds 1 lemongrass (thinly sliced) 2 teaspoons of salt 2 tablespoon of tamarind paste 1 tablespoon of palm sugar 2 tablespoon of vegetable oil ½ cup of water Directions 1. Add marinade ingredients in a blender and blend until mix well. Transfer to a large bowl. 2. Put sweet black soy sauce and coconut milk into the marinade sauce and stir to combine. 3. Marinate the chicken for at least 2 hours to overnight. 4. Thread 1-2 pieces of chicken onto each skewer. Baste each side with oil or coconut milk to prevent the chicken from getting stuck on the grill. Cook over a fire until brown. 5. Remove the chicken skewers from the grill and serve with peanut sauce and cucumber salad (Ajaad)

 http://www.cooking-thai-recipes.com/thai-chicken-satay.html