PECEL

Cooked vegetables salad with peanuts sauce.

In Indonesia, people would use such vegetables as yard long beans, cabbage, kangkung (water convolvulus), bean sprout, spinach, cassava leaves, kecombrang leaves (phaemoria haemispheria), kenikir leaves, magkuk leaves, and others. Other vegetables such as slice potatoes, green beans, carrots, zucchini, cauliflower, broccoli etc can be used. Use your imagination!
The vegetables should be cleaned, cut in bite sized pieces and lightly cooked. Arrange decoratively on a big platter and serve accompanied with Sambal Pecel in separated bowl. Mmmm…..it’s yummy…

Sambal Pecel
250 g peanuts or substitute 1 cup crunchy peanut butter
vegetable oil
2 red chilies
3 bird’s eye chilies
2 cloves garlic
1 cm fresh kencur
1 kaffir lime leaf
¼ tsp terasi
1 tsp palm or brown sugar
2 tsp tamarind dissolved in 2 tbs water
salt to taste

• fry the peanuts until golden brown color. Remove and set aside
• fry the red chilies, bird’s eye chilies, garlic and kencur together until they are somewhat limp, then pound them to paste with the kaffir lime leaf
• Grind the peanuts until smooth. add terasi, sugar, tamarind, salt and he pounded spice-paste. Blend till smooth
• Add some hot water and blend to consistency of thick cream