Satay nanas - Pineapple satay with tamarind and peanut caramel

Ingredients

Preparation time: 45 minutes

Caramel sauce

• 300 g granulated sugar
• 90 ml water
• 50 g glucose powder (available from Amazing Oriental, among others).
• 150 ml whipping cream
• 100 g butter, melted
• 30 cm ginger, peeled and finely grated
• 2 tbsp. Tomasu Soy Sauce

Further

• 100 g tamarind jam (available from Asian supermarkets)*
• 1 pineapple
• 100 g fresh, peeled peanuts, coarsely chopped
• zest of 1 organic lime

* If you can't find tamarind jam, use a jarred tamarind paste. It is a bit more sour, so adjust the amount for the marinade. It should be sour and sweet.

Photography - Remko Kraaijeveld

Preperation 

First make the caramel sauce. If you were put off by the word glucose, come back for a moment. Sounds complicated, but it is simply a powder that ensures that your caramel remains soft after cooling. You can also leave it out, then it will become a bit harder. Then heat it up briefly before serving.

1. Put the sugar in a tall pan (it will splash later) with the water and the glucose. If you are not using glucose, add 50 milliliters of water to the sugar. Stir the mixture briefly and now turn the heat up high and wait until the sugar starts to bubble and caramelize. This may take a while, but stay with it because before you know it, it will be burnt. If the sugar starts to color, turn the heat down, that way you have more control.
2. If the sugar has the colour of, yes, caramel, add the whipped cream. It will splutter and fizz, be careful. Keep stirring until you have a smooth sauce. Remove from the heat, add the butter and stir. Season with the finely grated ginger and the Tomasu soy sauce – the soy sauce has a similar effect to salt, so you make a kind of salted caramel but even tastier.
3. Mix the tamarind jam with 5 tablespoons of caramel sauce.
4. Clean the pineapple, cut into pieces of approximately 3 x 3 centimetres and mix with the tamarind caramel. Put aside until use.
5. Thread the pineapple pieces onto sticks soaked in water. Preferably, you put this satay on a fire that has already been tempered somewhat, so at the end of a satay session. Grill the satay for about 5 minutes per side until the outside starts to caramelise and shows light burn marks.
6. Serve with the remaining caramel, sprinkle with chopped peanuts and lime zest.

Photography - Remko Kraaijeveld