Satay Ayam & Ketupat Downunder

I had an absolutely exhausting week. I was so tired that I just had to take Friday off. Spent the entire Friday in bed or on the sofa. I was even forced to eat out cos we were both too tired to cook. Yuck!

Today I felt better but I still needed a perk-me-up. Richard was still drained and he deserved a 'reward'. To me, nothing says 'reward' better than special home cooking, Singapore style.

I marinated chicken thigh fillets with ready-made Indonesian satay mix, ginger and garlic for several hours. The rice was pre-cooked before being rolled up in aluminium foils which ended up half-resembling Christmas crackers. Then they were steamed for a good 40 minutes. I got this ketupat (compressed rice cakes) recipe from Ghillie Basan's "The Cooking of Singapore & Malaysia" cookbook. I've never made them this way before and I was a little anxious at how they were going to turn out.


Richard fired up the barbecue and we're off! He cooked onions, capsicum, fresh corn and of course, the mouth watering satay!


Just look at how the satay turned out! Crunchy, slightly burnt bits on the outside and soft, juicy meat inside.


The ketupat turned out pretty good too. I think they would have turned out better using short grain rice like the recipe asked for, instead of the Jasmine rice I used. The rice cakes weren't as compressed and I had to pack it together before serving. We still gobbled them up quickly though!