Indonesian Vegetable Salad With Peanut Sauce Gado Gado Recipes

GADO GADO (MIXED VEGETABLE SALAD WITH INDONESIAN PEANUT SAUCE)

Steps:

• Cook the potatoes in boiling salted water for 20 to 25 minutes, until fork-tender. Peel and cut into 2-inch (5-cm) cubes.
• Prepare a bowl or tub of ice water. Blanch the cabbage for 1 to 2 minutes, until translucent and wilted, and transfer to the ice bath. When cool, drain on kitchen towels. Set aside. Repeat with the spinach (30 seconds to 1 minute), bean sprouts (30 seconds to 1 minute) and green beans (3 to 4 minutes).
• Arrange the vegetables, eggs and tofu or tempeh on a large platter. Serve with a bowl of Indonesian Peanut Sauce, with the vegetable chips and fried shallots on small plates alongside. Each diner should pick and choose an assortment of ingredients to put on their plate. Drizzle 2 to 3 tablespoons of peanut sauce over the vegetables and top with vegetable chips and fried shallots. Stir everything together and enjoy!

GADO-GADO RECIPE (INDONESIAN SALAD WITH PEANUT SAUCE)

Steps:

• Place your pulp in the first bowl and pour the hot water over it. Leave to soak for 10 minutes, mashing with a fork halfway through, to loosen the pulp.
• At the end of 10 minutes, mash it up well with your fingers. Strain the tamarind mix through a large mesh sieve or strainer, pushing down on the pulp in the strainer. You don't want a fine mesh, as you won't get the essence of the tamarind juice which will be too big to go through. Set aside until needed.
• Place the raw or blanched peanuts in a small frying pan over medium heat and toast for 5 minutes. Turn the heat down to medium-low after 2 minutes, so the peanuts don't brown too quickly and burn.Keep tossing and flipping the peanuts until they are a light brown colour and giving off a sweet and nutty aroma.
• When done, tip the nuts onto a large, flat plate and leave to cool for for at least 15 minutes while you get the other ingredients going.
• Place the toasted peanuts in a chopper and pulse to a fine state. Set aside for adding to the sauce.
• Halve the onion, and roughly chop the chillies.
• Add the onion, garlic, chillies and dried shrimp to a food chopper and chop to a fine state. You could also use a pestle and mortar for this.
• Heat the oil in a mdium saucepan over medium heat.
• Fry the ground ingredients for 2 minutes.
• Tip in the peanuts and tamarind juice. Stir, then pour in the water and give it a stir to mix well. Bring to a simmer.
• Add the coconut milk, palm sugar, kaffir lime leaves, sweet soy sauce and salt. Give it a good stir and bring back to a simmer. Lower the heat down and simmer for 5 minutes.I like the sauce to be fairly thick, so that it will stick to whatever you dip into it. If you want to drizzle it, just add a little more water to make it slightly runnier.
• Take it off the heat and stir in the lime juice. Check seasoning, and add a little more salt if you need it. The sauce is meant to be strong in flavour, like any salad dressing, as it's meant to be eaten with unseasoned vegetables.Leave the sauce until you are ready to serve.It can be made up to 2 days ahead and stored in the fridge, covered.The sauce is served at room temperature, but you can have it hot, if you prefer.
• Eggs - boil the eggs, cool and peel them. Then halve or quarter them.
• Potatoes - scrub clean, then cut into bite-sized cubes. Boil them for about 7 minutes until a knife glides through easily. This will depend on the size of your cubes. Drain and set aside.
• Tempeh and Tofu - cut into bite-sized cubes and fry separately in a frying pan until crisp and lightly browned, about 3 minutes for each. Drain onto kitchen paper lined plates and set aside.
• Spinach - you can quickly blanch this in a pot of simmering water, or do like I do and use the microwave oven. Give them about 60 seconds, tossing halfway, so they cook uniformly.
• Green beans & Beansprouts - I prefer to leave these raw but you can blanch them in a pot of simmering water.
• Cucumber - cut these into sticks or chop them up roughly into bite-sized pieces like when served with satay.
• Cabbage - shred them or cut them into bite-sized pieces. Leave them raw or blanch them, if you like.
• Tomatoes - halve or quarter, depending on size of the tomatoes you are using. I tend to leave cherry tomatoes whole.
• Salad Leaves - leave them whole or cut them, it's matter of preference.

INDONESIAN VEGETABLE SALAD WITH PEANUT SAUCE (GADO-GADO)

Steps:

• Prepare the dressing: In a blender or food processor, blend the first 6 ingredients (garlic to roasted peanuts) until smooth. Add the water and coconut milk, blend again until smooth. Bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer 10 minutes. Allow to cool before using.
• Prepare the salad: Combine all the remaining ingredients (cucumber to eggs) in a large bowl. Pour the dressing over and serve.
• If you like, the salad ingredients can be set out separately rather than mixed altogether. The dressing can be served in individual bowls rather than poured over all.