Satay Sashay

I'm exploring some recipes from Food Editor's Favorites: Treasured Recipes. When selecting recipes from a cookbook for the blog, I'm looking for a mix that shows off the best of the cookbook (or recipe book as my mom says.) I'm also looking for what will feed me. The Pork Satay on page 81 fit the bill nicely.

I thawed pork overnight in the fridge, then snipped into bite-size chunks. I find that a good pair of kitchen scissors makes chopping meats into small pieces for stir-frys and such much easier than using a knife. It's not as precise, certainly, but also not something I'm worried about for this recipe. No perfection necessary.

For the marinade I combined peanut butter, cayenne, garlic, onion, brown sugar, lemon juice, and soy sauce. I didn't have any ground coriander or fresh cilantro in the house because I'd forgotten to buy it. People either love or hate cilantro; add my name to the list of those who love it. It's light and fresh, and adds a spark of spring to any dish it's added to. The difference between coriander and cilantro is explained well at What's Cooking America.

Marinade Ingredients

So, lacking in any fresh cilantro or dried coriander, I opted to use the remaining parsley from the boring mushroom dish. Parsley isn't a particularly great substitute for cilantro; it doesn't have anywhere near the flavor, but it's OK in a pinch.  I chopped the parsley up and added to the marinade, then stirred to combine.

Completed Marinade

I poured the marinade into a plastic bag added the chopped pork, and squished the bag around. Then I let it sit in the fridge overnight.

Pork Marinade

The  next day, I removed the bag from the fridge and placed the pork on a baking rack and broiled. As suggested in the recipe, I basted with a combination of olive oil and butter.

Pork Satay with Broccoli

Even though I kept my eye on these, I cooked them too long. The first bites of pork were moist and peanuty, but the leftovers the next day and the next were dried out. I can really see this recipe shining as an addition to the ubiquitous backyard barbecue this summer. It's easy to fix, fast to cook, and would work very well on skewers.