Indonesian Gado Gado - a delicious “blend”

Indonesian Gado Gado, a colorful vegetable plate with boiled egg halves, fried tofu, krupuk and peanut sauce

Indonesian Gado Gado - a delicious “blend”

March 27th, 2020 | main dishes

Gado Gado is an Indonesian national dish (one of the few without rice) that could be described as a large, colorful vegetable plate with exotic peanut dressing. If Gado Gado is served in the crew mess, my dearest captain usually gets a bright and proud message from an Indonesian crewmember: “Today it’s Gado Gado, Captain!” Because he likes this dish so much, we now prepare it at home from time to time…

Indonesian Gado Gado - a delicious “blend”

Literally translated, Gado Gado means “blend”, because you can put together all kinds of vegetables either raw or blanched. In addition to the vegetables, boiled eggs, krupuk and fried tofu are essential.

For the peanut sauce there are certainly an infinite number of different variants and each family has its own secret recipe. I got the following from an Indonesian chef – it’s delicious!

Indonesian Gado Gado

(4 servings)

40 g peanut butter

50 ml apple juice

50 ml vegetable broth

30 ml soy sauce

30 ml hazelnut oil

juice of 1 - 2 limes

15 ml white wine vinegar

4 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped

1 shallot, roughly chopped

2 stalks of lemongrass, roughly chopped

2 cm ginger, grated (alternatively ½ ts galangal powder)

½ ts allspice d’Espelette

1 TS of tamarind paste

puree all ingredients in a blender

300 g green beans

blanch* the beans, i. e. put them in boiling salted water, bring to the boil again, boil for 1.5 - 2 minutes, then rinse with ice-cold water

½ pointed cabbage, in strips

blanch, i. e. proceed as with the beans

2 carrots, sliced

1 cucumber, in sticks

1 red bell pepper, in strips

3 stalks of celery, sliced

50 g mung bean sprouts

4 eggs, soft-boiled, halved

1 red chilli, seeded, in fine rings

arrange all ingredients on plates

100 g tofu, diced

2 TS coconut oil, clarified butter or oil

fry the tofu until golden brown, drain on kitchen paper

crab chips (Krupuk)**

1 handful of roasted peanuts, roughly chopped

top the Gado Gado with krupuk, tofu and peanuts, pour the peanut sauce on top or serve the dressing in a separate bowl

GOOD TO KNOW

* Blanching means: Briefly pre-cooking vegetables in boiling water, then quickly cooling them in ice water.

** Krupuk is an Indonesian cracker made from tapioca flour, salt, ground shrimp and spices. You can get ready-baked Krupuk in the Asian grocery or buy Krupuk chips there and deep fry them fresh at home. It is best to use highly heatable peanut oil as the deep-frying oil. Warning: the crab chips only need seconds in the hot fat, otherwise they turn brown.

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November 27th, 2018 | bread & pastries

“Stutenkerl” – a traditional German Saint Nicholas pastry

How many times did I put a pastry man – a “Stutenkerl” – into my children’s Santa Claus’ boots. And how many times did one of them land in our ready-made boots for St. Nicholas Day in my own childhood. But so far I had never baked such a pastry man myself, although it’s really easy. And the result is just fun!