Beef Satay

Preparation 1. To make the marinade, place the tamarind pulp in a small nonreactive bowl and mix it with 3 tablespoons of very warm water. Let the tamarind pulp rest until it softens, 10 to 15 minutes. Squeeze and massage the softened tamarind pulp through your fingers, loosening the fruit's soft auburn-colored pulp from the shiny black seeds, brittle brown skin shards, and sinewy bits of string. With your fingers, remove all the solid pieces from the liquid and discard them; all that will remain is a thick caramel-colored extract. Set the tamarind extract aside. 2. Place the coriander seeds in a small food processor. Pulse until the coriander is well ground and dusty, about 2 minutes. (Don't remove the coriander from the food processor at this point — you're going to grind it again along with the other flavoring-paste ingredients.) 3. Add the tamarind extract, shallots, garlic, turmeric, ginger, palm sugar, oil, and salt to the food processor. Pulse until you have a smooth paste the consistency of creamy mashed potatoes. (If the paste does not purée properly and repeatedly creeps up the side of the food processor instead of grinding, add up to 2 tablespoons of water, 1 tablespoon at a time, periodically turning the processor off and, with a spoon, scraping the unground portions down toward the blade as you go.) Transfer the blended marinade into a nonreactive bowl large enough to hold the beef. 4. Slice the beef into long, 1/4-inch-thick strips against (not with) the grain of the meat, as you would if carving a cooked piece of London broil. The pieces should be no wider than 1 inch. 5. Add the sliced beef to the bowl and combine it well with the marinade, making sure that every piece is coated. Allow the beef to marinate at room temperature for 1 to 2 hours. 6. Thread the beef strips onto the presoaked bamboo skewers, weaving the point of each skewer through the center of the beef every 1/4 inch to make sure it holds tight and remains secure while it cooks. Use 1 to 4 pieces of beef per skewer, depending on how long the pieces are, making sure that the beef extends from the tip to the middle of the skewer. Leave plenty of room so you can grab the skewer at the bottom — the meat should not extend from one end to the other. 7A. To cook the beef on a grill, first prepare a medium-hot wood charcoal fire and oil the grill rack liberally. When the fire is hot (this may take up to 20 minutes), place each skewer on the grill, making sure that the beef, not the skewer, is directly over the heat. Grill the beef until it is cooked through and has begun to pick up a few crispy brown-black spots, about 2 to 5 minutes (depending on how hot the fire is). Turn the skewers over carefully and continue grilling until the other side is browned, another 2 to 5 minutes. Do not overcook the meat — it will dry out if you do. Test a piece by touching it with your finger. The beef should be firm, not squishy. Another way to test it is by cutting into the thickest point: It should be very faintly pink, neither blood-red nor gray. 7B. To broil the beef in the oven, preheat the broiler for at least 5 minutes and position the rack so that the satay skewers will be 3 inches from the heat source. Line a half-sheet pan with aluminum foil. Place each skewer on the pan, arranging them so that the meat is in the center of the pan and the skewers slightly hang over the outside, and slide the pan into the broiler. Broil until the meat begins to turn golden brown and develops a few char spots, about 5 to 6 minutes. Turn each piece over to brown the other side, an additional 5 to 6 minutes of broiling. Test a piece by touching it with your finger. The beef should be firm, not squishy. Another way to test it is by cutting into the thickest point: It should be very faintly pink, neither blood-red nor gray. If the surface doesn't char (your broiler or the distance from the flame may not allow it to), don't worry — as long as the meat is cooked through, the satay will taste wonderful. Do not overcook the meat; it will be unpleasantly dry. 8. Transfer to a serving dish and let the skewers rest for about 1 minute, until they are cool enough to handle. Serve immediately. Cook's Notes:• Tamarind pulp is the pleasingly sour flesh of the tamarind fruit. It is sold in firm, one-pound rectangular blocks at Southeast Asian and Indian specialty markets. If you can't find it, it can be omitted from the recipe. • Turmeric, a member of the ginger family, is a rhizome (underground stem) native to the Malay Archipelago and often used in the region's flavoring pastes. Added to curries and stews, it imparts an appetizing golden color and musky, peppery flavor. Each rhizome is a roughly one-and-a-half- to three-inch-long, fingerlike nub with thin, golden-tan skin that closely resembles that of mature ginger and brown, narrow concentric rings running down its length. Fresh turmeric must be peeled before it is used. The flesh inside is a vivid carrot orange and has a sharp, pleasantly acrid smell. For easier handling, it is coarsely chopped or thinly sliced before being ground into flavoring pastes. Look for fresh turmeric at Southeast Asian and Indian specialty markets; it's also available frozen at many Southeast Asian markets. Dried, ground turmeric won't have as much depth of flavor, but may be substituted. Adapted with permission from Cradle of Flavor: Home Cooking from the Spice Islands of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore