Pork satay experiment

I had a couple of pieces of pork but no brilliant ideas until the butterfly lady suggested satay. Okey-dokey. I fished around and found some ideas that resulted in this "recipe." I was surprised to find I had all the ingredients.

Pork satay with spicy peanut sauce

Before you do anything else, get

• a can of unsweetened coconut milk

and pour it into a smallish bowl. In about an hour (so they say, I left mine overnight in the fridge), the milk will separate into a thick, creamy part at the top and a thin liquid at the bottom. You will need to skim about a half-cup of the thick part off the top for later. You can mix the remainder in with the thin part to use in the peanut sauce.

Now, cut into 3-inch-by-1-inch, quarter-inch thick strips

• Pork for grilling (12-16 ounces)
  

and marinate for about a half-hour in:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce (nuoc nam, nam pla, whatever you wish to call it)
• 2 tablespoons lime juice
• 2 teaspoons freshly ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons freshly ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne (or more, if you like)
• 1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
• 1 tablespoon sugar (I would omit this next time)
  

Skewer so as to have a flat set of meat on the bamboo (soaked an hour in water) or metal skewer. I made U-shapes, skewering each piece twice. My pound or so of meat made four very generous skewers.

Brush skewered meat on one side with creamy coconut goop and place this side face down over coals on your grill (or toward the hot part of your broiler) and sear for a couple of minutes. Then brush the uncooked side, flip the skewers and grill until done, about 5-10 minutes (I did about 10).

Serve with peanut sauce:

• The rest of the can of coconut milk
• 1/2 to 3/4 cup crunchy peanut butter
• chili paste, to taste (I used a tablespoon of sambal oelek)
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon sugar (I would omit this the next time, too, but maybe you will like it sweet)

Combine ingredients in a saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring, until as thick as heavy cream. Makes way more than you need, but I'm sure you can find other uses for this sauce...

This is very tasty, but as I made it, a bit too sweet. As noted above, I'd just ditch the sugar. I also used less peanut butter in the sauce when I made it, and wound up adding some at the table. More is better, I think.