Jaggery Satay (Meat with Palm Sugar) This is a sweet, salty, hot dish that doesn't use any of the curry spices. Without jaggery (palm sugar, the dark variety, not the light refined one) the flavour won't be the same, but you can substitute brown sugar if you can't find jaggery. 750g (1 1/2 lb) round, blade, or other lean steak 2 tbsp tamarind pulp (best to buy without seeds) 1 cup hot water 2 tsp chilli powder, or to taste 1/2 tsp ground black pepper 1/2 tsp salt or to taste 1/4 cup chopped jaggery or 2 tbsp black or brown sugar 1/3 cup oil Cut meat into 2 cm (3/4 inch) cubes. Soak the tamarind pulp in hot water for 10 minutes, then squeeze all the pulp from the seeds. Strain. If more pulp is left on the seeds, add a little more water and dissolve this too, Strain again, preferably through a fine nylon sieve. Add chilli powder, pepper, salt and sugar and stir to dissolve sugar. In a small frying pan heat the oil until very hot and fry a small portion of the meat at a time (divide meat into 5 or 6 portions) until the cubes are lightly browned. This generally only takes 1 minute if the oil is hot enough and not too much is out in at one time. Lift out with a slotted spoon and put into a saucepan. Wait until oil stops spitting, then add and fry the next batch. repeat until all the meat has been fried, putting each batch into a saucepan. Pour the tamarind mixture over the beef, bring to a boil, then allow to simmer, covered, until meat is tender and the gravy very much reduced. Thread on skewers and serve with Basmati rice. -- _____________________________________________________ Tara Deen Phone: 61-2-9351 4271 School of Geosciences Fax: 61-2-9351 0184 Building FO5 Mobile: 061 410 538 655 University of Sydney NSW 2006 email: tara@es.usyd.edu.au AUSTRALIA http://www.es.usyd.edu.au/geology/people/postgrad/Tara/tara.htm ______________________________________________________