Newsletter # 52 – Satay pasta

In 1971 I was an apprenticed chef in a Dutch restaurant in Sydney. ‘Tulips’ restaurant was in George Street, not far from Australia Square, the record-breaking development, which had opened four years earlier. The restaurant was in the Wynyard precinct of George Street, just south of The Rocks which had come under the scrutineer of developers. Fortunately, the Green Bans of the 1970’s saved The Rocks and many of the heritage buildings of note closer to where I worked.

Tulips was a basement restaurant and backed on to Bridge Lane, but you entered via stairs off George Street. Adjacent buildings included Burn’s Philp, the Metropolitan Hotel and the Cricketer’s Club. Those buildings are still there and Bridge Lane still looks the same, but the only reminder of Tulips is a couple of curb stones close to where the ‘pig bins’ were put out every night. Ahh – happy memories.

Tulip’s catered for about 200 diners at once, in either the full service table section or the more casual ‘bar’ section. At lunchtime we were always packed with suits but the dinner service was always very quiet, probably because that part of town was still regarded as dodgy after 6.00 pm.

I used to start work at 10.00am and finish at 9.00pm with a break in the middle. That meant I left home at 8.00am and got home just before midnight. More happy memories.

The restaurant offered a European menu with many traditional Dutch dishes as well as Indonesian meals which reflected the Dutch historical association with Indonesia. The owner and staff were all of Dutch ancestry, with me and a waitress the only two ‘locals’. You could say that Tulips was an early example of a fusion restaurant and it was really my first introduction to both European and Asian food preparation – Nasi-goreng and Ryjsttafel  sat side by side with Dutch Croquettes and Holstein Schnitzel. It was here that I learnt to make, regrettably, Sambal Oelek, a potent Indonesian chilli condiment – but that is another story. Let’s instead talk about today’s recipe

It was at Tulips that I first became acquainted with peanut sauce or satay sauce, where it was served as you would expect with meat skewers. Today satay sauce is commonplace on many menus and is available in powdered, frozen, canned and bottled form in supermarkets.

When it comes to preparing quick, tasty meals for one or two persons, my recipe will make use of a number of your pantry and fridge ingredients and you can also incorporate leftover roast chicken, prawns or vegetables.

Satay Noodles

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Servings: 2 servings

Course: Main Course

Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients

  

• 60 g Peanut butter
• 1½ tbsp fish sauce
• 1½ tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 2 tbsp honey
• Juice from ½ lime
• 2 tsp minced garlic
• 2 tsp minced ginger
• 1 tsp crushed chilli
• 100 ml coconut milk
• pasta water
• 250 g dried egg pasta flat style – fettucine/tagliatelle
• 3 spring onions washed, 1cm slice
• chopped nuts optional
• prawns /chicken/vegies optional

Method

 

1. Assemble your ingredients
   
2. In a saucepan bring 2 litres of salted water to the boil, for the pasta
3. Meanwhile, in a non-stick frypan, large enough to add the pasta later, add all the other ingredients except the shallots
   
4. Slowly heat these sauce ingredients to a low simmer
   
5. Adjust the seasoning to suit your taste
6. When the water is boiling add the pasta and gently break up with a wooden spoon if required
7. Cook the pasta as per the directions on the packet. Mine was a little over 8 minutes
   
8. Drain the pasta (do not rinse) and retain about 1 cup of the pasta water
9. Add the hot pasta to the peanut sauce
10. Use a spatula to stir and coat the pasta with sauce
    
11. Add a little pasta water if you feel the sauce is too thick
12. Stir in half of the onions
    
13. Serve the pasta and top with remaining onions
    

Notes

Avoid overcooking the pasta in the water

I find dried pasta works better than the more fragile ‘fresh pasta’

All sauce ingredient amounts can be adjusted to suit