Indonesia’s Little Big Stick

Most people go to Indonesia for the temples, beaches and handicrafts. I went for the barbecue.

In a country of mind-boggling ethnic diversity (300 ethnic groups spread across 12,000 islands), sate (SAH-tay) is Indonesia’s culinary common denominator. These tiny kebabs are served everywhere, from roadside pushcarts to swank hotel restaurants, as a snack or a full meal, at religious festivals, at sporting events and at the beach, pretty much any time of day or night.

Sates are one of the most perfect foods devised by man: simple to make, easy to eat, economical, nutritious, infinitely varied in shape and flavor. Not surprisingly, their popularity extends far beyond Indonesia’s borders. Sates have become an integral part of the Thai, Malaysian and Singaporean diet. (“Satay” is the Malaysian spelling.) In the last decade, they’ve been embraced with equal enthusiasm by American chefs.

A great many misconceptions surround sate, not the least of which is its main ingredient. To most Americans, “sate” means a small (although rather large by Indonesian standards) chicken or beef kebab served with peanut sauce. In Indonesia, there are hundreds of types of sates, ranging from the tiny sate lalat (a tiny beef and coconut sate--its name literally means “fly”) to the sate buntel (a ground lamb sate so large that it takes four skewers to hold it).

In the course of my travels in Indonesia, I sampled more than 20 types, made with everything from chicken to ox tongue, pork, quail eggs and fish mousse grilled on lemon grass stalks.

The sate--or at least the idea of grilling meat on a stick--seems to have originated with Persian and Arab traders who arrived on Sumatra in the 11th century. They brought Islam to the region at this time, and they probably also introduced the Middle Eastern-style kebab. To support this theory, scholars point to Padang, one of the first cities in Sumatra to adopt Islam. Sate padang (spicy beef heart, tripe and tongue) is one of Indonesia’s most universally beloved sates.

If sate was inspired by the kebab, it quickly acquired its own personality. First, it shrank. Indonesia’s sates are some of the world’s smallest kebabs; some are so tiny, they’re cooked on skewers the size of broom straws. The average sate ayam (chicken sate) or sate kambing (lamb or goat sate) is about the size of the average small finger, making it perfect for snacking. It’s not uncommon for an Indonesian to down 20 or 30 sates at a single sitting--and still not leave the table stuffed.

According to Jakarta tourism representative Yuni Syafril, the sate takes its name from a Sumatran word meaning to stick, stab or skewer. When you’re really angry with someone, explains Yuni, you threaten to “sate” him or her. This sort of etymology is certainly not without precedent in the world of barbecue. Jamaican jerk comes from “jook,” the local dialect word meaning “to stab.”

It was Syafril who took me to a tiny pushcart on bicycle wheels run by a willowy young man with a faint mustache named Nurul Phamid.

Like his father, who set up shop here in 1960, Phamid begins work at 5 p.m. and continues until 3 a.m. His stock in trade is chicken kebabs, which he makes by the light of a kerosene lamp. Phamid spends his afternoons threading tiny pieces of chicken thigh, liver, skin and embryonic chicken eggs onto bamboo skewers not much bigger than broom straws.

When you place your order, he prepares the marinade on the spot, mixing kecap manis (sweet soy sauce), peanut sauce, lime juice and chopped onions on a dinner plate. He dabs a handful of sates in the mixture and puts them on a tiny charcoal brazier. A few waves of the most important piece of equipment in a sate cook’s kitchen--a bamboo fan--and the coals (coconut husk charcoal) blaze to life. Phamid bastes the sizzling sates with his secret ingredient: rendered chicken fat. A moment later, we’re ready to eat.

The accompaniments to this sate include a dollop of peanut sauce, a splash of kecap manis and a spoonful of sambal ulek (fiery chile sauce), which are mixed together in a bowl that Phamid wipes “clean” with a rag that’s probably never seen the inside of a washing machine. We’re also served a steamed cake of sticky rice, called lontong, which is cooked in a banana leaf. We sprinkle everything with fried shallots. The cost for this princely feast--and princely it is--is less than $1.

Our next stop is a brightly lighted sidewalk spot called Gunung Sari near Jakarta’s lively Kota district. Jakarta operates on a diurnal economy, I learn: Daytime businesses close their shutters at nightfall, and a veritable city of portable restaurants springs up on the sidewalks in front of them. Some, like Gunung Sari, are quite elaborate, with generators, fluorescent lighting systems and white Formica tables.

I peer into an enormous caldron bubbling away over a charcoal fire to see the next dish I’m to sample: sate padang. To make it, beef heart, tongue and tripe are simmered for several hours in a fiery broth flavored with ginger, galangal, turmeric, garlic and palate-blasting doses of black pepper.

The cooked meats are diced small, threaded on skewers and grilled over coconut husk charcoal. Meanwhile, the broth has been thickened with rice flour into a starchy gravy you could almost stand a spoon in. The kebabs and gravy are served on a banana leaf. To wash them down, there’s iced tea chilled with chips off a huge block of ice that sits on the sidewalk.

I must confess, I’m not a big fan of heart or tongue, and years of restaurant reviewing have conditioned me to disdain starchy gravies. But Gunung Sari’s sate padang is one of the most delicious things I’ve ever tasted.

Over the next two weeks, I sample an astonishing array of sates. Sausage-size sate buntel (ground lamb and coriander sates) served with sweet-sour tamarind sauce. Tiny sate kalong (“flying fox” sate), a sweet, garlicky ground beef sate named for a nocturnal squirrel that comes out about the same time of day as the sate vendors in the city of Cirebon on the north coast of Java.

One night, we feast on what was the last kind of sate I expect to find on this staunchly Muslim island: sate babi manis (pork sate). We find it, logically enough, in Jakarta’s Chinatown. In Bali, I enjoy one of my all-time favorites, sate lilit, a spicy fish mousse flavored with explosively flavorful kaffir (Asian) lime leaves and grilled on fresh lemon grass stalks.

Sates are primarily street food, but they’re simple to make at home and are great for entertaining. They’re high in flavor, low in fat, great for casual eating and quick--an 11th-century dish made for the 1990s.

Raichlen is the author of “High-Flavor, Low-Fat Vegetarian Cooking” (Viking, 1995).

PEANUT SAUCE

Peanut sauce is the classic accompaniment to sate throughout Southeast Asia. Here’s a simple version you can prepare in 10 minutes.

1 clove garlic, minced

2 teaspoons grated ginger root

1 or 2 Thai, serrano or other hot chiles, thinly sliced

1 green onion, finely chopped

1/3 cup unsweetened coconut milk

1/3 cup peanut butter

2 tablespoons kecap manis or soy sauce

1 tablespoon lime juice

1 teaspoon sugar

1/4 cup chopped cilantro, optional

* Combine garlic, ginger, chiles, green onion and coconut milk in saucepan and bring to boil. Stir in peanut butter, kecap manis, lime juice, sugar and cilantro and simmer until thick and richly flavored, about 5 minutes. Sauce should be thick but pourable; thin with additional coconut milk if needed. Correct seasoning, adding kecap manis, lime juice or sugar to taste. Sauce should be a little sweet and salty.

Makes about 1 cup. Each 1-tablespoon serving:

45 calories; 59 mg sodium; 0 cholesterol; 4 grams fat; 2 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams protein; 0.26 gram fiber.

JAKARTA CHICKEN SATE

(Sate Ayam)

This is one of the most popular sates in Jakarta, the street food equivalent of, say, a hot dog in New York. If you don’t want to make the Peanut Sauce, use a good bottled one.

1 pound boneless chicken (with chicken liver and skin, optional)

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons kecap manis

3/4 cup Peanut Sauce

3 tablespoons finely chopped onion

1 tablespoon lime juice

1 to 2 tablespoons rendered chicken fat

1/2 cup Peanut Sauce

1 tablespoon sambal ulek or favorite hot sauce

* Cut chicken, liver and skin into 1/2-inch cubes and thread onto small bamboo skewers. (Meat part of each sate should be about 2 1/2 inches long.)

* Prepare marinade by mixing 1/4 cup kecap manis, 1/4 cup Peanut Sauce, onion and lime juice on plate. Roll each sate in mixture. Grill sates over high heat, basting with rendered chicken fat, until cooked, about 2 minutes per side.

* Place remaining 1/2 cup Peanut Sauce in small bowl. Spoon remaining 2 tablespoons kecap manisand sambal ulek in center. Motion of dipping sates in sauce will mix ingredients together.

4 appetizer or 2 main-course servings. Each appetizer serving:

275 calories; 809 mg sodium; 50 mg cholesterol; 14 grams fat; 14 grams carbohydrates; 26 grams protein; 0.89 gram fiber.

GROUND BEEF WITH CORIANDER SATE

(Sate Age)

This coriander-scented beef sate comes from Solo in central Java. It’s traditionally served on a flat bamboo skewer that looks like a Popsicle stick. You could substitute a tongue depressor or two regular bamboo skewers. These sates are also good made with lamb or a mixture of beef and lamb.

1 pound ground chuck or sirloin (about 90% lean)

3 tablespoons chopped cilantro

2 shallots, minced

1 clove garlic, minced

2 teaspoons coriander

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2/3 cup kecap manis

2 teaspoons coriander

* Combine beef, cilantro, shallots, garlic and coriander in mixing bowl and mix well. Add salt and pepper.

* Lightly wet hands. Take handful of mixture and mold onto Popsicle stick or 2 bamboo skewers in flat sausage shape about 3 inches long, 3/4 inch wide and 1/2 inch thick. Repeat with remaining mixture to make about 16 sates. Place sates on plate or tray covered with plastic wrap until ready to cook.

* Combine kecap manis and coriander on plate and stir to mix. Set aside.

Grill sates over high heat 1 minute per side. (Position sates at edge of grill, so wood of skewers doesn’t burn.)

* Lightly roll sates in reserved glaze. Return them to heat and continue grilling until nicely browned on outside and cooked through, 1 to 2 minutes more per side. Serve at once.

* About 16 (6-inch) sates (4 appetizer servings or 2 main-course servings). Each of 4 appetizer servings:

176 calories; 3,312 mg sodium; 55 mg cholesterol; 7 grams fat; 5 grams carbohydrates; 22 grams protein; 0.12 gram fiber.

SWEET PORK SATE

(Sate Babi Manis)

This recipe comes from the Sate Babi Sop Bakut Shop in Pecenongan, the center of the old Chinese district of Jakarta.

SATE ASSEMBLY

1 pound pork loin or shoulder, cut into 1/2-inch cubes (leave on little fat)

1/3 cup kecap manis

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 shallots, thinly sliced

GARNISH AND GRILLING

1 cucumber, peeled, seeded and cut into 1/2-inch dice

1/3 cup kecap manis

1 tablespoon powdered dried galangal

4 kaffir (Asian) limes or key limes or 2 Persian limes, cut into wedges

SATE ASSEMBLY

Thread pork onto bamboo skewers. Mix kecap manis, garlic and shallots on plate and roll sates in mixture. (Meat should be in marinade with ends of skewers hanging off edge of plate.) Marinate pork in mixture 1 hour, turning occasionally to ensure even marinating.

GARNISH and GRILLING

Set out 4 dinner plates. On 1 side of each plate, place mound of diced cucumbers, puddle of kecap manis, small pile of galangal powder and few lime wedges.

Grill sates over high heat until browned and cooked, about 2 minutes per side.

To eat, skewer piece of cucumber on end of skewer, then dip sate in kecap manis, then in galangal powder. Squeeze lime juice on top and eat.

4 appetizer or 2 main-course servings. Each appetizer serving:

326 calories; 2,703 mg sodium; 61 mg cholesterol; 24 grams fat; 8 grams carbohydrates; 19 grams protein; 0.59 gram fiber.

BALINESE PRAWN SATES

(Sate Udang)

1/4 cup kecap manis

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 1/2 teaspoons coriander

2 tablespoons lime juice

2 tablespoons palm sugar or light brown sugar

1 tablespoon oil plus 2 tablespoons for basting

24 extra-large shrimp, peeled and deveined

12 stalks lemon grass or bamboo skewers

Balinese shrimp sates owe their extraordinary fragrance to the skewers on which they’re cooked: fresh lemon grass stalks. When buying lemon grass, try to choose slender stalks. But don’t worry too much if you can’t find lemon grass--sates cooked on bamboo skewers still have plenty of flavor.

* Whisk together kecap manis, garlic, coriander, lime juice, palm sugar and 1 tablespoon oil in mixing bowl. Stir in shrimp and marinate 1 hour.

* Trim roots and tips off lemon grass stalks and strip off outside leaves.

* Skewer shrimp on lemon grass stalks, 2 shrimp to each stalk. (It helps to make starter hole in shrimp using metal skewer.) Grill shrimp over high heat until cooked, about 2 minutes per side, basting occasionally with oil.

6 to 8 appetizer servings or 4 main-course servings. Each of 8 appetizer servings:

87 calories; 540 mg sodium; 37 mg cholesterol; 6 grams fat; 4 grams carbohydrates; 6 grams protein; 0.02 gram fiber.

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Cook’s Tips

* Rendered chicken fat, called for in Jakarta Chicken Sate, may be bought at some butcher shops. To render it at home, buy one whole chicken and remove yellow lumps of fat from cavity of bird. Place in small skillet over medium heat and cook until fat melts, 5 to 10 minutes. Strain fat into jar and reserve.

* The following ingredients are available at Asian markets and many gourmet shops.

Kecap manis: A thick, sweet Indonesian soy sauce. If unavailable, substitute equal parts regular soy sauce and molasses.

Galangal: A root in the ginger family with a peppery, aromatic flavor. Ground galangal is sold in Asian markets and gourmet shops, sometimes under the Indonesian name laos.

Palm sugar: A brown sugar made from palm sap, sold in big lumps. You can substitute regular brown sugar.

Sambal ulek: A fiery red Indonesian chile paste. Substitute Thai or Vietnamese chile paste or your favorite hot sauce.