Peanut Gravy @ Satay Gravy (Kuah Kacang @ Kuah Sate)

Last weekend, I had a few close friends who came over to my place for a Hari Raya visit!

In the excitement of having them coming for the first time to my new home and with all the hassle of food preparation, I had not managed to take photographs for all the dishes that I had prepared on that day.

I managed though to take detailed pictures for two of the dishes that I had cooked. One of them is Kuah Kacang aka Kuah Satay (Peanut Gravy aka Satay Gravy). The source of this recipe is from Azie Kitchen (thank you very much to her for sharing) but I had made a few adjustments to the recipe as I had to cook a bigger portion and my domestic helper (my great helper in the kitchen whenever I am kitchen-ing) who is from Semarang, Central Java, Indonesia had also given some input in the cooking of this dish. This dish is an Indonesian dish so who else would better know how to cook it other than an Indonesian. This is however, the first time I am cooking it. It is as good as a try and I was fully prepared for this dish not to turn out the way it was supposed to be. Having remembered what my mum had told me, “It is not a death punishment when the food you cook does not turn out the way you want it to. You are the one cooking the food and not the other way round, so you can always edit cooking here and there.”, I am therefore taking a big risk in deciding that this should be one of the dishes in the menu that I was going to be serving my guests for that day. As it turned out, the feedback that I had was that words cannot describe how their stomachs felt (ehem…I’m proud to say that the stomachs were not upset at all) that day…

Let's get to the ingredients:-

(Do note that the ingredients here are for a bigger portion, so if you are not cooking so much, you may need to reduce the ingredients below by half.)

1 kg ground nuts – fried till cooked and coarsely pounded or ground
(I used oil to fry as suggested by my Indonesian kitchen-ing assistant)

(*to be blended in a food processor with a little bit of water into a paste)
20 shallots*
2 large onions* (this I added myself, to increase the portion of my gravy)
12 garlics*
2 inches ginger*
2 inches galangal* (aka blue ginger)
6 stalks lemon grass* - finely sliced

2 cups of chilli paste
2 cups of tamarind juice – taken from two handfuls of tamarind paste mixed with water
2 cups sugar (lesser or more depending on your preference)
salt to taste
1-2 small bowls of water (depending on the size of your bowl)

(**added as suggested by my Indonesian kitchen-ing assistant)
2 stalks lemon grass – crushed**
5-6 pieces of kaffir lime leaves** (I always tear into smaller pieces to enhance the fragrance released)
1 cup coconut milk**
2 blocks of coconut sugar** (also known as "gula merah" or "gula melaka" in Malay)

Method:

1. Heat up oil in pot and saute the blended mix until fragrant.

2. Once you can smell the fragrance, you should see some oil collecting on top of your sauteing mix.

3. Add in the chilli paste and stir.

4. Mix thoroughly and continue sauteing the mixture.

5. Once you do the ladle slide test and see oil collecting at the gaps in the mixture, you are ready for the next step.

6. Add in the coarsely ground or pounded ground nuts and stir.

7. Now, you add in the tamarind juice, the bowl of water, salt, sugar and coconut sugar.

8. Simmer over medium fire and bring to a boil.

9. Add in the coconut milk and simmer over medium fire. Stirring every now and then.

10. Once you see the oil has separated and started to collect on the top of your cooking gravy, add in the crushed lemon grass and kaffir lime leaves. Simmer over medium fire for another ten minutes whilst stirring every now and then. Off the fire and your gravy is ready.