Perfecting Jakarta Style Lamb Satay at Home

Indonesian street food at home series.

Lamb Satay or Sate Kambing is a common street food you can find when you are in Jakarta. The satay made from a lamb shank meat cut into a dice shape, marinated to perfection in a mix of spices, ghee or butter and Indonesian sweet soy sauce, then stuck onto a skewer, and cooked on the grill. You usually serve the meal set with a thick black-colored sauce made of kecap manis or sweet soy sauce combined with Indonesian spicy salsa. You can company the dish with steamed rice or traditional cubed rice like lontong or ketupat.

Tools

• Bamboo wooden skewers

• Grill, we used table indoor grill but you can also use an outdoor grill

• Brush, for basting

• big and small mixing bowl

Ingredients

For lamb marination:

• 2 lbs of lamb shank cut into square

• 1 tablespoon garlic powder

• 1 tablespoon onion powder

• 2.5 teaspoons cumin powder

• 3.5 teaspoons coriander powder

• 1 teaspoon black pepper

• 1 teaspoon ginger

• 1 teaspoon white pepper

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1 teaspoon coconut sugar

For basting:

• 3 tablespoons melted ghee or butter

• 5 tablespoons Indonesian sweet soy sauce

For the sauce:

You can use bumbu dapur sambal kecap for the sauce or you can make your own.

• 5-10 Thai chili, chopped thinly

• 2-3 shallots, sliced in half-moon shape

• 2 cloves of garlic, crush or chopped finely

• 1 Roma tomatoes cut into dice

• 1 lime juice

• 1/4 cup of Indonesian sweet soy sauce

• 1/8 teaspoon of salt

• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley (optional)

• 1/2 teaspoon fish sauce

Directions

Grilling the meat:

1. Cut the lamb shank into square.

2. In a small bow mix all the dry spices to marinated the lamb.

3. In a mixing bowl, add the spice mix into the lamb, make sure it cover the meat evenly.

4. Once all the spice mix with the lamb meat, cover the bowl and let it marinate for at least 2 hours in the fridge.

5. Soak the wooden skewer in a water for about 30 minutes, this helps prevents the skewer from burning during the grilling.

6. Take the lamb out of the fridge, let it sit until the meat is back into room temperature.

7. Add the lamb into the skewer.

8. Preheat the grill. Brush some butter on the grill.

9. While the grill is heating, prepare the basting. In a bowl melt the ghee/butter in microwave.

10. Once the butter is melt, mix it with the sweet soy sauce.

11. Place the skewers on the grill, brush the meat with the basting sauce. Grill the lamb for about 3-4 minutes on each side. Flip the skewer 2-3 times and always basting the meat for every flip.

12. Once the satay is ready you can eat them with the sambal kecap sauce or serve it with a side of steamed rice or traditional cubed rice.

Making the sambal kecap sauce:

1. In a bowl mix all the sauce ingredients together.

2. Let it marinate for about 30 minutes.

3. You can drizzle the sambal kecap sauce on top of the lamb skewers.