Sate Padang
A satay from West Sumatra's Minangkabau culture, genuinely gravy-based rather than peanut-based, the key technical distinction from most other Indonesian satay styles. The thick, bright yellow sauce comes from a rice-flour slurry cooked with beef broth and a heavy turmeric-forward spice paste, not a dipping sauce on the side. Traditionally made with beef tongue, tripe, and heart alongside beef muscle, not just muscle meat — a real authenticity marker often dropped in simplified export versions that use beef chuck alone.
Meat
Ingredients
- 600g beef chuck, cubed (plus optional beef tongue, tripe, or heart)
- Water, bay leaves, galangal, lemongrass, for poaching
- 100g rice flour
- 500ml reserved beef broth
- 2 tbsp turmeric
- 1 tbsp grated ginger
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 tbsp coriander seed
- 1 tsp cumin
- 3 slices galangal
- Salt
- Fried shallots, to garnish
- Lontong or rice, to serve
Steps
- Simmer the beef (and offal if using) with the aromatics until tender. Reserve the broth.
- Cube the meat, thread onto skewers, and grill over charcoal until lightly charred.
- Toast and grind the spice paste, then cook it in the reserved broth.
- Thicken with a rice-flour slurry until glossy and thick.
- Pour the hot sauce generously over the skewers, top with fried shallots, and serve with rice cakes.