Thai style pork sate with peanut sauce

Pork sate always seems to be a winner at nibble and graze type parties. This is particularly true if it is accompanied by a good peanut sauce and marinated beforehand in a pungent garlic, chili, fish sauce and sugar mixture. For these, I marinated for 24 hours, even though the recipe I used stated that 1 hour was sufficient. They were tender, well flavoured and moorish, released from their skewers and spiked with cocktail sticks for easy sauce dipping action.

Recipe : Pork sate

Marinade 

Adapted from Australian Women's Weekly Easy Thai Cooking

1 pork loin, sliced thinly length ways

1 clove garlic, crushed

1/2 tsp ground coriander

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1 tbsp oil

1/2 tbsp brown sugar

1/2 tbsp fish sauce

1/4 tsp chili sauce

Mix the marinade ingredients together well and set aside. Thread the pork onto metal or wooden skewers (make sure you soak the wooden skewers for 30 minutes first to prevent burning) and place into a baking dish or tray. Pour the marinade over the pork, turning them to coat and marinade for as little as one hour to as much as 24. After 24 hours the fish sauce will have become very pungent but lessens a little when cooked.

When you are ready to cook the pork, remove from the marinade and place under a preheated grill (broiler) for about 15 minutes, turning once or twice. When they are golden brown and cooked through, either serve straight from the skewer or remove, cut into small pieces and pierce with a toothpick for guests to pick up. 

Recipe : Peanut sauce

2 tbsp smooth peanut butter

1 tbsp soy sauce

1/2 tbsp rice vinegar

1.5 tbsp water

1 tsp sugar (or more to taste)

Mix everything together in a large bowl, (it will be difficult and look curdled at first, but persevere) until the sauce comes together and looks smooth. Taste and adjust to your liking with a little more sugar, rice vinegar or soy sauce.