Mango Salad, Chicken Saté

Last night we were craving Thai food. We love the 'layers' of flavour that you get with Thai foods; the combination of sweet, salty, hot, and cool. I also wanted to try some of the low-fat Thai recipes that I had found while searching about on the net.

We started off with chicken saté as an appaetizer. I didn't really do much so it isn't a recipe per se. All I did was take 4 boneless, skinless breasts of chicken and slice them into strips. I marinated them for 2 hours in a large sealable bag with a bottle of prepared low-fat peanut sauce that I had purchased from the market. Paul threadded the marinated chicken onto skewers. I grilled the saté on the BBQ for about three minutes per side.

I served the saté on a platter with a bowl of the peanut sauce. Because mom was over for dinner I was felling the need to 'fancy' things up so I sprinkled the saté with chopped cilantro and toasted chopped peanuts. Mom and Paul felt that the peanuts and cilantro made the saté. It must have been good because while they enjoyed their appetizers I made a chicken mango green curry and a basil beef stir fry. When I sat down to enjoy dinner most of the saté was gone!

We also served a mango salad. I lucked out and found some nice mangoes at the store so the flavour was exceptionally good.

2 limes
1 tbsp (15 ml) soy sauce or fish sauce
1 tbsp (15 ml) granulated sugar

1 small jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced OR 1/2 tsp (2 ml) hot red chili flakes
2 tbsp (30 ml) peanut oil
salt to taste
2 ripe but firm mangoes

2 sweet peppers, preferably 1 red and 1 yellow
1 medium carrot, coarsely grated
1 chopped red onion

1/2 cup (125 ml) chopped fresh mint or coriander
1/3 cup (75 ml) toasted peanuts, coarsely chopped

Finely grate peel from 1 lime and place in a measuring cup along with 1/4 cup
(50 ml) lime juice. Whisk in soy sauce, sugar, and jalapeno pepper until sugar is dissolved.

Gradually whisk in peanut oil until blended. Add salt to taste. Set aside.

Peel mango, then cut away chunks of fruit from pit. Cut into thin strips and place in a bowl.

Seed peppers and cut into thin strips and add to mango.

Coarsely grate carrot and thinly slice onion and add to bowl along with mint or cilantro.

Toss gently until combined.

Place mango mixture in a large bowl. Toss with dressing until mixed. Add nuts and serve garnished with some more toasted peanuts and chopped cilantro. YUM