This recipe makes enough satay paste to marinate 3kg (7lb) of meat. You could make a smaller quantity, but what are you going to do with the other half of the chilli? This is the basic marinade for any type of satay – satay chicken, minced satay lilit, beef, pork, lamb, prawn, or whatever takes your fancy – and you’ll be surprised how quickly those skewers disappear. So I recommend making the full amount and either throwing a satay party or portioning it and freezing it to have on hand for quick future meals. Here’s my recipe for peanut sauce (a.k.a. satay sauce) to serve with your satay.
Makes about 1 cup (250ml)
Share page on:
Gula jawa — literally ‘Javanese sugar’ — is an unrefined palm sugar made from the sap of coconut palm flowers. The sap is collected in bamboo tubes, then boiled until it thickens and is poured into traditional bamboo moulds to cool and solidify into cylinders or discs. It has a rich, toffee-caramel flavour that is less sharp and more complex than refined cane sugar. In Indonesia it is also known as gula merah (red sugar); in Malaysia the equivalent is gula melaka.
To use gula jawa, grate it or shave it with a sharp knife — it doesn’t dissolve easily in its solid form.
Gula jawa is available in discs or cylinders from Asian grocery stores.
Malaysian gula melaka is the best substitute for gula jawa. Dark brown sugar is the most readily available substitute, though it lacks the depth and complexity of gula jawa. Avoid pale palm sugars or white sugar as they don’t have the same complexity.
