Name: Gado Gado (Salad with Peanut Sauce Dressing)
Yield: Makes 4 to 6 Servings
Ingredients: 45 g or 1½ ounce dried chillies, soaked hot water for ½ hour; ½ head lettuce, leaves cut into 2.5 cm or 1 inch squares; 500 g or 1 pound 2 ounces red bliss potatoes; ½ head cabbage, leaves cut into 2.5 cm or 1 inch squares; 150 g or 5½ ounces long beans, trimmed and cut into 5 cm or 2 inch pieces; 150 g or 5½ ounces bean sprouts, heads and tails plucked; 3 pieces firm soy bean curd (taukua); 2 pieces fermented soy bean cakes (tempeh) (optional); 1 cucumber, seeds removed and cut into bite-size pieces; 4 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and quartered; 300 g or 11 ounces compressed rice cakes (lontong), diced into 2.5 cm or 1 inch cubes (optional) *; Prawn crackers (keropok); 1½ teaspoons belachan; 40 g or 1½ ounce brown sugar; 30 g or 1 ounce gula melaka; 60 g or 2 ounces white sugar; ¾ cup oil; 340 g or 12 ounces ground peanut; ¼ cup coconut milk; 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar; 10 g or 1 ounce salt; 30 g or 1 ounce garlic, peeled; 55 g or 2 ounces tamarind (assam), soaked in 2 cups hot water; 70 g or 2½ ounces shallots, peeled and diced

Preparation info

Makes
4 to 6
Servings

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Growing Up In A Nonya Kitchen

By Sharon Wee

Published 2012

About

A few years ago, my father and I went to an Indonesian restaurant and ordered gado gado. He told me that my mother’s gado gado was rather similar to the Indonesian version, as it included cucumbers and fresh lettuce. Our family also prefers to have ikan tamban crackers or prawn crackers with our gado gado.

Ingredients

Peanut Sauce

45 g or 1½ ounce dried chillies, soaked hot water for ½ hour
55 g or

Method

Peanut Sauce

Drain soaked chillies and set aside. Strain the tamarind juice and discard the seeds and fibre.
Combine the shallots, garlic, red chillies and belachan and pound or grind to a fine paste. Heat a wok with some oil over low heat and fry the spice paste until fragrant.
Add 1½ cups of the tamarind juice,