Balinese minced duck and pork sate on skewers

Chop the duck meat very fine so the tough meat is easy to eat, then paste it back onto a skewer.

Put the duck through a meat grinder, the same way as for hamburgers.

Mince two thirds duck to one third pork. The meat has to be fresh; with frozen meat it will not work at all.

Combine the spices in a stone mortar and grind them to the bumbu spice paste.

Add to the minced meat the spice paste for strong-flavoured meats, freshly grated coconut, and generously the mix of fried shallots, fried garlic, fried chilies, shrimp paste and salt.

Add a little palm sugar for sweetness, not too much, and a little fresh coconut cream, carefully.

Season with a good pinch of salt and a pinch of pepper.

Mix and blend the meat into a very homogenous paste that holds together; this takes a little time.

Taste the raw paste and correct with a pinch more salt.

Take a small ball of paste, press it down, then keep turning it and pinching it down onto the bamboo skewer so the meat is basted evenly along the whole length.

Leave the little ripples in the surface: they burn on the grill and add a slightly bitter flavour.

For the lemongrass version, bruise the end of the stalk by hand or with a knife and paste the meat onto it the same way.

Do not grill them and do not roast them: sear them over burning hot charcoal. The hotter it is, the more flavour.

Cook over coconut charcoal and keep blowing air into it, because coconut charcoal needs a lot of oxygen to burn very hot; it dies down the moment the air stops.

Blend the same spice paste with a generous amount of oil for a basting mix, and baste the skewers from time to time.

Serve straight off the grill so they are still sizzling when they reach the tongue.