Huan The Cook

PECEL RECIPE – Pecel is one of popular dish to serve daily especially in Central Java and East Java. It is made of green vegetables and coated with thick peanut dressing. Another “Indonesian salad” is gado-gado that also made of mixed vegetables with peanut sauce dresing. But they are definitely different.

Pecel is usually served with steamed rice, because it is a part of side dish. But gado-gado is absolutely a main meal. Most pecel contains boiled or steamed vegetables that have green color leaves (except tauge/been sprouts and cabbage). While gado-gado mostly contains raw mixed vegetables, tofu, tempe (fermented soy bean cake), emping melinjo (melinjo crackers), krupuk udang (shrimp crackers) and lontong (rice cake shaped long and wrapped in banana leaf).

Ingredients:

• 200 grams snake beans (chinese long beans)
• 200 grams kangkong (spinach for another option)
• 100 grams tauge (been sprout)
• 50 grams kemangi leaves (optiona;)
• 50 grams cabbages

Peanut dressing:

• 500 grams peanuts
• 10 shallots
• 6 cloves garlic
• 50 grams red cayenne
• 50 grams small light-green cayenne (add this for more spicy result)
• 6 cm kencur (Kaempferia galanga)
• 200 grams palm sugar
• 2 tablespoon tamarind juice
• 10-12 lime leave, sliced
• 4 grams dried shrimp paste (terasi)
• salt (sufficiently)

How to:

Vegetables:

Add snake beans  in boiled water until soften. Then add kangkong (or spinach) and been sprouts. But don’t too long to keep  their nutrients.  Strain and put in a food container.

Peanut sauce dressing:

1. fry dry the peanuts in a pan without oil until they are crispy but not singed. Put in a food container.
2. grill ( or fry dry without oil) the cayennes, shallots, garlic, kencur until fragrant.
3. Mash the peanuts on pestle and mortar (or food processor) until crushed.  Put in food container.
4. Grind the grilled spices, lime leaves, dried shrimp paste, palm sugar, and salt with pestle and mortar (or blender or food processor).
5. Mix the mashed peanut into the mortar/blender/food processor with ground spices . Add tamarind juice.  Blend them together finely.
6. Add salt if necessary. Blend.
7. Put the peanut dressing into a food container. Keep it in dry and cool place.
8. When you want to serve it, take some amount of peanut sauce and dilute it with hot water in separate food container or a bowl.

To Serve a full dish of pecel:

Prepare steamed rice in a plate. Arrange the vegetables on the rice with this down to top position: (1) kangkong (2) snake beans (3) bean sprouts. Put kemangi leaves on it. Then pour the peanut sauce until the vegetables coated. For side dish, it’s better to eat it with tempe goreng (fermented-soybean-cake that is fried with rice flour), rempeyek, or shrimp crackers. This dish is a good choice for a veggie.

Related posts:

1. Pecel Lele
2. Nasi Goreng Jamur Tiram Recipe (Fried Rice with Oyster Mushroom)