Indonesian Recipes (Bali, Java) - Salad with Peanut and Pota Recipe

Ingredients

• Various vegetables, for instance:

• 75 g/3 oz kangkung (water spinach) (or watercress or lamb's lettuce (75 g), 1 manisah (or kohlrabi), 1 bunch pak choi (or Swiss chard), 1 cabbage

• 1 small head lettuce

• 1/2 cucumber

• 150 g/5 oz tofu (bean curd)

For the dressing:

• 100 g/3 1/2 oz (1 cup) roasted, unsalted peanuts

• 2-3 chilies or 1 red chili (medium hot)

• 1 tablespoon palm sugar

• 1 teaspoon tamarind mousse or concentrate

• 1 teaspoon trasi (shrimp paste)

• 1/2 teaspoon kencur

• juice of 1 lemon

• 1 large cooked potato

• salt, water

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Method:

1. Wash and prepare the vegetables, peel and cut into small pieces and blanch briefly apart from the cucumber and lettuce.

2. Cut the tofu into cubes and fry or, better still, deep fry. Wash the lettuce and pull it apart.

3. Stir the blanched vegetables together with the deep-fried tofu, cucumber pieces and salad.

4. Grind the peanuts, chilies, palm sugar and tamarind together with the trasi and kencur. Stir in the potato, mashing it so that it amalgamates with the rest of the ingredients.

5. Add the lemon juice and a little water to thin the mixture slightly. Pour this thick, sour dressing over the blanched vegetables.

6. Served with kerupuk or emping, it makes an ideal light meal. But accompanied by ketupat, it becomes a meal in its own right.