(source: Jana Liptáková)
Ingredients: 1 thinly sliced fresh cucumber; 2 pieces of fried tofu; 1 hard boiled egg cut into 4 pieces. For the blanched vegetables: 1 cup of string beans cut into 4cm-long pieces; 1 cup of shredded cabbage; 1 cup of mung bean sprouts; 2 small chayotes cut into wedges; 1 cup of water spinach; 1 cup of Chinese spinach; 1 cup of sweet corn. The sauce: ground roasted peanuts; bird’s eye chillies; dried shrimp paste (terasi); palm sugar; salt; tamarind; garlic and water. For garnish: fried shallots, shrimp crackers, emping (gnetum gnemon chips called “Melinjo” in Indonesian); 1 medium-sized steamed potato cut into bite-size pieces.
Preparation: Blanch and strain the Chinese spinach, water spinach, string beans, mung bean sprouts, cabbage and sliced cucumber; cook for 20-30 minutes. Grind ingredients for sauce with a mortar and pestle until smooth; add 1 tbsp of salt, 2 tsp of dried shrimp paste, 3 red bird’s eye chillies, and 1/4 cup of palm sugar; add 1 cup of finely ground roasted peanuts (or 1 cup of peanut butter) and grind some more until mixed well. Mix 1 tablespoon (about 20g) of tamarind with 1/4 cup of hot water in a small bowl. Add the juice to the sauce, then add a half cup of water and mix well. Put the vegetables on a serving plate and pour the sauce on top of it, or mix all the vegetables with the sauce in the mortar before serving. Add a sliced hard-boiled egg on top and garnish with fried shallots, shrimp crackers and emping. Serve with Lontong (steamed rice cake).
Indonesian cuisine:
Pepes (grilled fish wrapped in banana leaves)
