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Gado-gado
Jakarta's warm and cool vegetable platter with tofu, tempeh, egg and a thick peanut-chilli sauce
In Jakarta, gado-gado is lunch from a pushcart: the Betawi seller grinds the peanut sauce to order on a stone ulekan, then tips blanched greens, potato, tofu, tempeh and egg into it and mixes everything by hand. The name roughly means "mix-mix", and that is how it's eaten, with every vegetable coated in a sauce that's nutty, sweet from palm sugar, sour from tamarind and as hot as you ask for. It's a full meal on its own, crunchy with emping or rice crackers on top. Chef's tip: loosen the peanut sauce with warm water only at the end and stop when it coats a spoon like custard; too thin and it slides off the vegetables and pools on the plate.
- Total time
- 35 min
- Difficulty
- easy
- Serves
- 4
Ingredients
For the peanut sauce
For the vegetables
To serve
Method
0/10 doneStep 1: Put 7 oz raw peanuts in a dry wok or frying pan over a medium heat and toast, stirring all the time, until golden brown with dark freckles and smelling like roasted peanut butter. Tip onto a plate to cool; if they're skin-on, rub off the loose skins.
8 minStep 2: In the same pan, heat 1 tbsp of the 3 tbsp vegetable oil over a medium heat and fry 3 cloves garlic and 3 red bird's eye chillies for about 1 minute, until the garlic is pale gold and the chillies blister. Don't let the garlic brown or the sauce turns bitter.
1 minStep 3: Blitz the peanuts in a food processor to coarse crumbs, then add the garlic, chillies, 1 ⅜ oz palm sugar, 1 tbsp tamarind paste, 2 makrut lime leaves and 1 tsp salt and blitz again to a thick, slightly gritty paste. A little texture is right; this isn't smooth satay sauce.
3 minStep 4: Add 1 cup warm water a splash at a time, pulsing, until the sauce falls off a spoon in a thick ribbon. Taste: it should be sweet, sour, salty and hot in balance. Adjust with more sugar, tamarind or salt.
Step 5: Boil 10 ½ oz waxy potatoes in salted water over a medium-high heat for 10–12 minutes, until a knife slides in with no resistance. Lift out with a slotted spoon and keep the water boiling.
12 minStep 6: Lower 4 eggs into the same water and boil for 9 minutes for firm yolks. Cool them in cold water, peel and halve.
9 minStep 7: Blanch the greens in the same water one batch at a time, lifting each out into a colander: 5 ½ oz green beans for 3 minutes until bright and tender-crisp, 5 ½ oz white cabbage for 1 minute, 5 ½ oz spinach or water spinach (kangkung) for 30 seconds until just wilted, 5 ½ oz bean sprouts for 20 seconds. Drain well and squeeze the spinach; wet vegetables thin the sauce. Leaving the greens dripping is the mistake most people make here; the sauce turns grey and watery on the plate.
5 minStep 8: Heat the remaining 3 tbsp vegetable oil in a frying pan over a medium-high heat. Fry 9 oz firm tofu for 6–8 minutes, turning, until golden and crisp on every side, then fry 7 oz tempeh for 2–3 minutes a side until deep golden and nutty-smelling. Drain on kitchen paper.
12 minStep 9: Arrange the potato, greens, 1 cucumber, tofu, tempeh and eggs on a platter or in shallow bowls. Spoon the peanut sauce over just before eating, or toss everything with it in a big bowl the Jakarta way.
Step 10: Scatter with 3 tbsp crispy fried shallots, tuck in a few 1 ⅜ oz emping (melinjo crackers) or rice crackers for crunch and serve with 1 lime wedges.
Nutrition per serving
- Calories
- 520 kcal
- Protein
- 26 g
- Carbs
- 34 g
- Fat
- 32 g
- Fibre
- 9 g
Nutrition values are estimates.
KrazyBadal
Good to know
- How long does gado-gado take?
- About 35 minutes in total: 20 minutes to prepare and 15 minutes to cook.
- How many people does it serve?
- 4 as written. Change the servings above the ingredients and every amount scales to match.
- Is it vegetarian?
- Yes. It has no meat or fish.
- Is it gluten free?
- Yes, as written. Check the labels on stock, sauces and spice mixes, which sometimes contain gluten.
- What can I use instead of garlic?
- ½ tsp garlic paste or ⅛ tsp garlic powder per clove.
- What can I use instead of palm sugar?
- Caster sugar, same amount.
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