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gado gado - Indonesian dish, thick with peanut sauce and raw vegetables

gado gado

steph - Vegan About Town

Gado gado is an Indonesian dish, thick with peanut sauce and raw vegetables and lontong and tofu and it is super delicious. It is popular as a meal, or as just another dish in a long meal. It is also very popular in Malaysia, known as either gado gado or in its variation as pasembor. Pasembor is usually identical to gado gado, but might include yams and be made using groundnuts. It is still super delicious, either way!



gado gado

This is a relatively uncomplicated recipe, and though it does involve trying to do three things at once, it is over quite quickly. As there are so many elements, I've broken this recipe down in to parts: peanut sambal, lontong, and assembling the gado gado. Lontong is one of my very favourites, compressed rice; it is an essential part of satay sticks, and gado gado. The recipe I have included here is cheating, but I am usually too lazy to find pandan leaves.

peanut sambal
quarter of a cup vegetable oil
one and a half cups of raw peanuts
five fresh red chillis, sliced and deseeded
1 teaspoon tamarind juice
2 tablespoons grated palm sugar
5 lime kaffir leaves
2 cloves garlic, minced or diced
1 tablespoon dark soy
1 tablespoon kecap manis
one(ish) cup of water

In some vegetable oil, stirfry the peanuts for about four minutes. Be careful not to burn the peanuts, though you have some leeway. Use your wok spatula to lift and drain the peanuts - if you don't know how to do this, just use a slotted spoon. Set aside. If there is an excessive amount of oil left in the wok, and there probably will be, remove some, until only two tablespoons of oil are left. Add in the chillis, tamarind juice, palm sugar, garlic and the lime kaffir leaves. Stirfry on medium heat for two or three minutes, then add a quarter of a cup of water, and keep bubbling and tossing for another minute. Remove from heat. After the peanuts have cooled a little (five to ten minutes will be plenty), combine the chilli mixture (minus the lime kaffir leaves) with the peanuts in a blender or a mortar and pestle, and pound or process until paste. Gradually (as in, a quarter of a cup at a time) add about one cup of water, as well as the kecap manis and the dark soy.

lontong
Cook some long grain rice in your usual way, but add an extra half again the amount of water. Line a long, flat dish with cling-wrap, and scoop the rice in. Press flat. Each piece should ideally be two or three centimetres in height, to give you some idea of the size of the dish you will need. Cover with a clean towel, and layer heavy things on top of it, such as containers with food, and place flat in the fridge. Leave to set for six or seven hours. When it is firm, take out of the fridge, gently lift from the container, and cut in to cubes. You can serve this with gado gado or satay, it goes unbelievably well with a warm satay sauce.

If you are serving gado gado as a meal, you will want half a cup of uncooked rice per person when making the lontong.

gado gado
1 potato
1 carrot
a handful or two of snow peas
a cup of bean sprouts
some doufu puffs/fried tofu
lontong
a whole lot of peanut sauce
a small amount of cauliflower

Boil and cube the potato. Julienne the carrot, top and tail the snow peas, and blanch. Cut the cauliflower in to tiny flowers (you can serve this raw or boiled). Prepare bean sprouts, and lay out on a serving dish with potato, snow peas, carrot, cauliflower and doufu. Smother with peanut sambal.

You can sub in and out vegetables as it takes your fancy, I like to use chinese cabbage and capsicum too.

kari kapitan - nonya mock chicken curry

kari kapitan - nonya (mock) chicken curry

By VEGAN ABOUT TOWN

My childhood memories are filled with spices: eyes watering as my mum added too much chilli; ears echoing as she pounded spice using mortar and pestle; hiding in the front room as she made blachan.

Nonya (from the Malaysian Straits) curries are heavy with chilli and coconut and simmered for hours. The smell weaves through the house and you know deliciousness is ever so slowly nearing. There is a comfort there, still, in curries on all days, no need to restrict them to only cold days.

Kari Kapitan is one of the first things I learnt to cook, I was reluctant to leave my mum's daily provisions without being able to provide it for myself. After we went vegetarian, I did not even try to convert this, because the way the chicken falls from the bone is such an integral part to the dish's flavour, I thought I would not be able to replicate it, and I wanted to leave it perfect in my memory rather than mess it all up.

In January, in preparation for a curry party (which I will blog about eventually), I took a leap of faith and gave it a go, using mock meat (which I never use), and I was so excited as the smells started to float through the house, the chilli and the potato and the garamasala. When I sat down I tried my own curry first, such a slight but I couldn't wait, and it was just as I remembered, the bite of the chilli and the gravy, coconuty and sour and just perfect.

It's so important to me that after all this time, I am able to have one of my favourite foods, something that I thought I wouldn't get to eat ever again. This is the first time I've posted a recipe with mock meat, as I try not to eat it too often, but in this instance there is nothing that will give quite the same texture and result. And it's such a wonderful result.



kari kapitan (Nonya mock chicken curry)

This is a very simple version of an old favourite. It can get more complicated than this, but this is a great way to indulge in an old favourite without too much trouble.

Mock chicken is not for everyone. It's made from gluten, or soy, and occasionally dairy, so check the packet.

ingredients
1 shallot
1 clove garlic, minced
1 heaped teaspoon dried chilli flakes
1 heaped teaspoon garamasala
3 curry leaves
3 lime kaffir leaves
3 medium to large potatoes, peeled and diced (some small cubes, some larger)
1 cup mock chicken pieces
a large handful snake beans (cut in thirds)
1 tomato, diced tiny
1 large can coconut milk
1 cup vegetable stock


method
Using a thin-bottom pot, fry the shallot (sliced) in some peanut oil with the garlic, until it starts to discolour. Mix together the chilli and garamasala with a little water until a thick paste is formed, and add this paste, as well as the mock chicken, to the pot. Braise the chicken, and coat well in the paste. Add the potato, tomato, lime kaffir leaves and curry leaves, as well as the stock. Add extra water so that the ingredients are almost but not totally covered. Simmer on low heat with the lid on for about thirty minutes, then add the snake beans. Add extra water if necessary, and replace the lid. Simmer or another twenty minutes, then add the coconut milk. Leave to simmer with the lid off for ten minutes. Smother rice in the gravy and serve.




I am posting this for the WYF Cuisine Event.