Tag: peanuts

A New Peanut Sauce for Gado Gado

I’ve been on the lookout for some time now for a more authentic Indonesian peanut sauce to crown a gado gado salad or sate sticks. I’ve tried many recipes from my various Indonesian cookbooks and most seem to miss the mark. Indonesian sate sauce differs from island to island and each Indonesian home cook may highlight a distinctive spice in their sauce. I’ve tasted some dark, thick sauces in Java and Sumatra which are quite different from their Balinese counterparts. The same goes with the classic gado gado vegetable salad, a dish which depends on an excellent peanut sauce. I’ve eaten some completely green gado gado salads in Ubud, Bali and some made from only kangkung  (water-spinach) in Sumatra, as well as the old-fashioned mixed steamed vegetable gado gado that I learnt around 35 years ago in my early visits to Bali, which includes hard-boiled eggs.

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Basic ingredients for a good peanut sauce

The following recipe comes from Janet de Neefe’s Bali, The Food of My Island Home. Janet runs a cooking school in Ubud, which I attended a few years ago, and also has three restaurants and a lovely guesthouse in Ubud. She has lived in Ubud for more than 30 years with her Balinese husband and family. Note that I often substitute brown sugar for palm sugar, a switch that makes very little difference to the outcome of the sauce. Balinese peanuts are always super fresh and freshly roasted: try to find a reliable source of freshly roasted nuts. Good Indonesian Krupuk Udung ( prawn crackers) are quite different from the ubiquitous supermarket variety. They are large and tastier and can be found in many Asian groceries.

Balinese Peanut Sauce
Balinese Peanut Sauce

Bumbu Kacang– Balinese Peanut Sauce

Ingredients

  • slice of shrimp paste/ Belachan/Terasi equivalent to 1/2 teaspoon
  • 4 garlic cloves
  • 1 long thin red chilli, seeded and roughly chopped
  • 2 small red chillies, roughly chopped
  • 2 kaffir lime leaves, rolled into a bundle and finely shredded
  • 2- 3 tablespoons fried shallots ( optional)
  • 1 tablespoon grated palm sugar
  • 1 tablespoon Kecap Manis
  • 1/4 medium tomato
  • 150 gr peanuts, roasted
  • 3 + tablespoons water
  • 2 teaspoons lime juice
  • sea salt
My gado gado- using vegetables mon hand
My gado gado- using vegetables on hand

Method.

Hold the piece of shrimp paste with tongs or pierce with a skewer and roast over a gas flame on both sides until the smell is strong.

Blitz the shrimp paste, garlic chillies, lime leaves, fried shallots, palm sugar, and kecap manis in a food processor until smooth. Add a splash of water to get the mixture moving. Add the tomato, peanuts, water, lime juice and salt to taste. ( For a sauce with deeper flavour, you can fry the garlic, chilli, untoasted shrimp paste and tomato in 2 tablespoons of neutral oil ( not Olive) until fragrant first)

Prepare your gado gado vegetables or sate. Pour over the peanut sauce and garnish with krupuk udang ( prawn crackers)

Krupuk Udang. Balinse Prawn crackers
Krupuk Udang. Balinese Prawn crackers

A simpler version of Peanut Sauce can be found here, the latter useful for camping.

Photo on header taken at Taman Sari in Pemuteran, Northern Bali, where they make an excellent Bumbu Kacang.

Hội An Feasting and Chả Cá at Vy’s Market Restaurant.

The first time I tasted  Chả Cá Lã Vọng, fried fish La Vong style, was in the famous 120 year old La Vong restaurant in Hanoi in 1996.  It was the only dish served, along with beer and tea, so it saved any confusion about ordering. In those days, you entered the restaurant via steep rickety stairs and soon after, a tiny terracotta brazier was placed on the table, coals glowing, along with a small aluminium frypan, and a platter full of various ingredients, which were quickly cooked, layered and assembled before your hungry eyes.

First step: assemble your ingredients.
Step One: assemble your ingredients.

I always vowed that I would make that dish on my return to Melbourne, once I  had acquired a little authentic table top cooker. I never did, although I often saw some small charcoal braziers, moulded in the shape of a bucket, along Victoria Street in Richmond. Now twenty years have passed and I did not expect to see this famous dish from Hanoi turn up in Hoi An. It was a very good version too and transported me back to the more spartan days of Hanoi, where young women still wore pure white Au Dai and the spirit of Uncle Ho was alive and well.

Step two, light the table top stove and add marinated fish.
Step two, light the table top stove and add marinated fish.

We visited Vy’s Market Restaurant in Hoi An and were surprised to find Cha Ca on the menu. Vy’s  is a huge dining hall  with various cooking stations around the perimeter. You can watch rice pancakes being grilled on hot coals, young apprentices making vegetarian wonton, noodles being stretched and woks tossed. You can learn a lot here without attending their famous cooking school.

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Step three, when the pan gets hot, toss the fish about, using long chopsticks, then add half the herbs and half the peanuts. Toss.
step for. Add the precookd rice noodle or Bun.
Step four. Add the precooked rice vermicelli noodle or Bun and more herbs.
Toss all together then add chilli and final herbs and peanuts. Toss
Toss all together then add chilli and remaining herbs and peanuts. Toss

The  Recipe

Marinade for fish. 

  • 1/2 kilo neutral tasting white fish, cut into 2.5 cm pieces
  • small knob of ginger, grated
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 1 tsp Nuoc Mam (Vietnamese Fish Sauce)
  • 1 tsp Mam Ruoc (Vietnamese Fermented Shrimp Paste)
  • 1 tsp ground black pepper
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 1 piece ( small finger) of fresh turmeric, pounded or 1 teas turmeric powder

For Frying

  • A small amount of neutral oil
  • 1 bunch spring onions, chopped into long pieces, white and green parts used. Thick white ends cut through lengthwise.
  • 1 large bunch dill, chopped into 2-inch pieces
  • 2 cloves garlic, smashed
  • roasted unsalted peanuts, chopped
  • Bun (Vietnamese rice vermicelli noodles), soaked or cooked so ready to use.
  • Herbs- rau ram (Vietnamese coriander), tia to (Vietnamese perilla), more dill. ( not basil- the predominant taste is dill)
  • Fresh chopped chilli or chilli sambal
    Cha Ca on the plate.
    Cha Ca on the plate.

    Place the fish in the marinade ingredients and mix well. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1-2 hours.

Place the fish and its marinade in a small frying pan over a table top cooker. ( you can do this on a regular stove but part of the drama of the dish is assembling it before the diner). Pan fry the fish for a few minutes, then begin adding the flavours. First some of the herbs, especially the dill and spring onion, then half the peanuts. Toss about for 30 seconds, then add the rice noodle and perilla, toss about, incorporating the noodles through the fish. Then add the remaining herbs, the chilli and more peanuts. Serve with plain rice.

A little tofu and chilli dish on the side.
A little tofu and chilli dish on the side.

This version of Cha Ca was was enjoyed at Vy’s Market Restaurant and Cooking School, 3 Nguyen Hoang Street, An Hoi Islet, Hoi An and cost a little under AU $10, one of the most expensive items on the menu.The tofu dish cost AU$3.88. A small tiger beer is around AU$2. The prices are a bit higher than many of the local restaurants but the quality here is superb. Highly recommended for those yearning to visit or return to Hoi An.