Satay and Green Mango Salad

Satay and Green Mango Salad

This dish is a bit of a Jamie Oliver / Luke Nguyen love child, and frankly it’s a cheat’s version that probably both would be ashamed by. It was with a Pavlovian slaver that I recently watched JO cook chicken satay on 30 Minute Meals, which he served with a tasty-looking but distinctly un-Asian watercress and pancetta salad. Slightly offended, I channel-flicked to find LN putting the finishing touches on a Vietnamese prawn and green mango salad. It was as though God had appeared to She-Moses and commanded the creation of some sexy cross-cultural Indochine mixup.

I was pretty excited to find green nam doc mai (the ‘correct’ mango for the occasion) when I was trotting around my local fresh prod markets yesterday. I’ve never made anything with green mango before but it is surprisingly sweet, juicy and easy to work with. Teamed up with coriander it’s… well… pornographically delicious.

Selacious over-exuberance aside, the best thing about this meal is that it takes 30 minutes from picking up a kitchen knife to stuffing it into your mouth, making it fast, healthy and exotic mid-week cooking. I’d love to hear the results of your efforts!

• Makes: 4 serves
• Preparation time: 20 minutes
• Cooking time: between 15 and20 minutes
• Wine match: There are lots of complex flavours here, so something with high acidity and neutral or savoury flavour, like Sauvignon Blanc or Marsanne.

Ingredients

Satay

• 1 bunch of coriander, roots and stems only
• 3 cloves garlic
• 3 green chillies
• 3cm piece of ginger
• 4 or 5 kaffir lime leaves, or juice and zest of 1 lime
• 4 tbsp peanut butter (or a differnt nut paste if you are allergic to peanut – cashew is wonderful!)
• 3 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp vegetarian fish sauce
• 2 tsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1/4 cup warm water
• 1kg whole chicken breast, or if you’re vego substitute for tofu

Green Mango Salad

• 4 green mangoes, very finely julienned or grated
• 1 bunch coriander, leaves only
• 1 hot red chilli, finely chopped
• 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp rice vinegar
• 1 tsp sesame oil

Method

Soak 8 to 10 bamboo sticks in water to stop them from burning under the grill. Cut the chicken or tofu into cubes, thread onto bamboo sticks and place in a greased roasting tray.

To make the satay sauce, whizz all the satay ingredients (except chicken or tofu) in a food processor. Set aside half the sauce for serving. Rub the rest into chicken or tofu, adding a bit of olive oil and extra honey. Leave to marinate while you’re making the salad.

Make the green mango salad by tossing all ingredients together in a large bowl. Peel the hard skin of the mango with a vegetable peeler. I julienne my mangoes over the bowl with a Zyliss zester so that the mango juice drips in – so delicious. Pop the prepared salad into the fridge until you’ve cooked the chicken.

Turn the grill onto the highest setting. When it’s nice and hot pop the tray of chicken or tofu in. Keep a very close eye on it because it’ll cook really quickly. My grill is inside the oven so I set the tray on a rack about 20cm away from the grill and cooked each side of the chicken for 10 minutes (20 mins all up). The tofu took 5 minutes each side (10 minutes all up). If your grill is separate it’ll be much faster cooking.

Serve the chicken satay with the remainder of the satay sauce and the green mango salad. JO served his with little lettuce cups, which sounds delicious but I’m too lazy for any of that business.