beef satay with spicy mango dip

People keep giving me venison. I have friends who enjoy hunting but have families that don’t love the flavor of venison. I have another friend who doesn’t prefer the front shoulder, so I’ve turned several into barbacoa (and then gave him the recipe, and that was the end of my venison front shoulder donations). I don’t even know how I ended up with the prized backstrap, a cut similar to the tenderloin, but I’m not complaining.

Rather than search for venison-specific recipes, I consider venison interchangeable with beef or sometimes pork. My brother sent me this recipe, and while I didn’t have the right cut of beef, I did have venison backstrap. It’s an interesting recipe, with a marinade that includes ground cashews. It ends up as more of a paste, which sticks to the meat as it cooks.

It may be unusual, but it works. Dave and I made the full recipe, which supposedly feeds four, and we had no leftovers. Someone needs to give me more venison backstrap so I can make this again immediately – and this time I won’t share the recipe.

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Beef Satay with Spicy Mango Dip (rewritten from Linda Doeser’s Chinese: The Essence of Asian Cooking)

The recipe recommends serving with salad greens, but I mostly considered those garnish, while rice was important to soak up the sauce.

I made tamarind sauce the same way I do for pad Thai, by soaking tamarind paste in hot water, then straining out the solids and using the liquid in the recipe. You might also be able to find tamarind concentrate. If not, it won’t ruin the recipe to leave it out.

For the satay:
1 pound sirloin steak, thinly sliced across the grain and skewered
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
½ cup raw cashews
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 shallots or 1 small onion, finely chopped
½-inch piece fresh ginger, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 tablespoons tamarind sauce
2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon rice vinegar or white wine vinegar
Salad greens, to serve

For the spicy mango dip:
1 ripe mango, peeled and seeded
1 to 2 fresh red chiles, seeded and finely chopped
1 tablespoon fish sauce
Juice of 1 lime
2 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
½ teaspoon salt

1. Heat a small not-notstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the coriander and cumin seeds; toast, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Immediately transfer to a mortar and pestle or spice grinder. Let cool completely before grinding.

2. In the bowl of a food processor, combine the ground spices, cashews, oil, shallots, ginger, garlic, tamarind sauce, soy sauce, sugar, and vinegar. Process until the cashews are finely chopped. Coat the meat with the cashew mixture; cover and chill for at least 30 minutes or up to 8 hours.

3. For the dip: Process the mango, chiles, fish sauce, lime juice, sugar, cilantro, and salt in the food processor until smooth.

4. Prepare a medium-hot grill. Cook the skewers directly over the heat until browned and cooked through, 3-4 minutes per side. (Alternatively, cook for the same amount of time as close to the broiler element as possible.) Serve with the sauce and greens.