Melaka's inversion of satay: raw skewers of meat, seafood, and tofu are cooked at the table in a bubbling cauldron of the peanut satay sauce itself, so the dip becomes the cooking medium. Invented in mid-20th-century Melaka (Capitol Satay is the storied name), it turns the satay lineage into a communal simmer-pot experience.
Also known as: satay celup, sate celup, satay celup melaka, malacca satay celup, satey celup
Watch it made
Ingredients
- 300 g peanut satay-sauce base: 200 g ground roasted peanuts, 3 tbsp satay spice paste (lemongrass, galangal, chili, shallot)
- 1.2 l water plus 200 ml coconut milk
- 2 tbsp palm sugar and 1 tbsp tamarind paste
- 300 g prawns, shelled
- 300 g chicken or pork, thin slices
- 200 g fish balls and cuttlefish pieces
- 150 g firm tofu and 1 bunch kangkung (water spinach)
- bamboo skewers
How to make it
- 1
Fry the spice paste in a pot until it splits its oil, add ground peanuts, water, coconut milk, palm sugar and tamarind, and simmer 20 minutes into a thick, bubbling gravy.
- 2
Skewer all the raw items and arrange them around the pot — in Melaka the cauldron sits in the table's center and never stops bubbling.
- 3
Keep the sauce at a gentle volcanic blip over a burner; too hard a boil catches the peanuts on the pot base.
- 4
Dip skewers straight into the gravy to cook: seafood and slices 2-3 minutes, tofu and greens under a minute.
- 5
Stir the pot between rounds and loosen with hot water as the sauce thickens on itself.
Pro tip: Unlike satay with sauce on the side, the sauce IS the cooking pot — stir from the bottom every few dunks or the peanut layer scorches and turns the whole cauldron bitter.
