~Amanda~
These Grilled Beef Satay Skewers with Peanut sauce are course two in our delicious Thai dinner menu that we learned at our Thai cooking class we took for Jackie’s birthday the other week. The first course was this amazing Coconut Chicken Soup and the final course is Vegetables with Coconut Curry and Jasmine Rice. All of these courses are amazingly delicious, but I must say, these Beef Skewers with the Peanut Sauce are pretty incredible and I was really surprised by how much I loved them, they may have just been my favorite. The flank steak is marinated in the most amazing Thai marinade for a few hours and then quickly grilled over high heat – locking in all the yummy juices and flavors – and then served with a coconut milk and curry peanut sauce. I mean what’s not to love about that. Sweet, spicy, savory, salty, and scrumptious… it’s got everything you could ever want in a single dish!
Before you even start with the food, you need to soak your bamboo skewers in water for a few hours. Since we are grilling the skewers, you want to make sure they are wet so that they don’t light on fire… nothing ruins a nice evening like lighting your skewers on fire, am I right?! Once those are soaking, you can move on to making the marinade for the steak. To do this, combine coconut milk (yes, there is a TON of coconut milk between all these recipes, so hopefully you love it just as much as we do – and hey, it’s good for you anyways) vegetable oil, fish sauce, brown sugar, curry paste, salt, and turmeric in a bowl. Whichever of these ingredients you don’t find at your grocery store, you can find at a local Asian marketplace. Next, place the steak into a large ziplock bag and pour the marinade over it and let marinate for at least two hours so all the delicious flavors soak into the meat.
While the meat in marinating, you can make the peanut sauce (and work on preparing your other courses as well). The peanut sauce is very simple and so incredible because it’s filled with peanut butter! I am a peanut butter junkie, so I am all for any dish that incorporates peanut butter, which is probably another reason this dish ended up being my favorite. To make it, you heat the coconut milk, brown sugar, curry paste, and lemon grass together in a pot and simmer. Then you pour it over the peanut butter and fish sauce in a blender and blend until smooth and set aside until you’re ready to eat. Grilling the skewers properly is so important. These skewers need to be grilled over high heat and super fast to capture all the flavors and juices without over cooking (chewy, overcooked beef is pretty much the worst). Once they’re all grilled up, serve them alongside the peanut sauce and enjoy – you are going to love these!!
- ½ cup coconut milk
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoons curry paste (red)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1 ¼ pounds flank steak, sliced in long strips ½” wide
- 2 tablespoons oil (or butter)
- 12 long bamboo skewers
- 1 ¼ cup coconut milk
- 4 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon curry paste (red, yellow, green)
- 2 teaspoons fresh lemon grass, minced
- ½ cup peanut butter (smooth or chunky)
- 1 teaspoon fish sauce
- In a medium bowl, combine the coconut milk, fish sauce, vegetable oil, brown sugar, curry paste, salt, and turmeric.
- Place the steak strips in a large ziplock bag and pour the marinade over it. Seal the bag and move the contents around to make sure the steak is covered. Marinate for at least two hours.
- Meanwhile, make the peanut sauce (see directions below) and soak the bamboo skewers in water (so they don’t burn on the grill).
- Thread 1-2 pieces of steak onto the skewers trying not to have any of the bamboo showing.
- Preheat grill to high heat. Place the skewers on the grill and cook for about 3-5 minutes per side, adjusting for your cooking preference.
- Serve with peanut sauce.
- Combine the coconut milk, brown sugar, curry paste, and lemon grass together in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat then reduce and simmer for one minute.
- Place the peanut butter and fish sauce in a blender or small food processor. Pour in the warm coconut milk mixture and blend until smooth.
- Serve with beef skewers.
