Vegetable Salad with Peanut Sauce

( Gado-Gado )

Gado-gado means campuran in Indonesia (or a mixture in English word ), is sort of like a salad, but most Indonesians usually eat it as an appetizer or sometimes even as the main dishes because it contains a lot of ingredients that would make you feel full.  Therefore, this dish is tasty and healthy. I don't know where Gado-gado comes from, but Surabaya has some interesting choices where you can enjoy a very tasty Gado-gado.

Category : Vegetables

Difficulty : Easy

Cooking time : 30 - 60 minutes

Ingredients

       1/4 small cabbage, chopped and blanched

       1 cup bean sprouts, blanched

       100 g green salad

       2 hard-boiled eggs, cut in wedges

       2 fried tofu

       2 boiled potatoes

       2 lontong (compressed rice ), check how to make lontong here

       Prawn cracker  (krupuk udang)

       2 tablespoon fried shallots

Peanut Sauce

       500 gram fried peanuts

       4 cloves of garlic, peeled

       3 small red chillies, sliced ( optional and you can substitute it with paprika powder if you don't like it spicy)

       8 cm Kencur, peeled and chooped ( you don't have to add this if you don't have it )

       3 fresh Kafir Lime leafs

       2 tablespoons of salt

       1 litres water

        500 ml of coconut milk

        100 gram palm sugar (gula jawa - if you  don't have it you can use brown sugar as substitute)

       3 tablespoons fried shallots

Directions

1. Prepare the sauce by frying the garlic and the chillies. Then grind or blend them with peanuts and kencur until the mixture is smooth. And then put in pan with other ingredients except fried shallots. Simmer over very low heat for 30 minutes, stirring to prevent sticking. Add some more water if it's necessary.

2. How to serve : First cut lontong, tofu and potatoes into small pieces, arrange them on the dish, then add all vegetables and krupuk, pour the sauce. Garnish with eggs, sprinkle with fried shallots.