Gado Gado

And lastly, but surely not least, the final dish on our mini-rijsttafel series: gado gado. These last weeks we've discovered rendang, saté, and atjar. Combined with a big bowl of steamed white rice, these dishes will give a you a great start on getting familiar with one of Holland's colonial cuisines, Indo food. At yet at the same time, it doesn't even begin to cover the vast variety of dishes, colors, flavors and textures that a larger rijsttafel can offer. I encourage you to visit some of the Indo food sites on Facebook or the web, like the Dutch-Indo Kitchen: recipes, opinions and flavors vary according to regions or even down to families, so it's a great culinary adventure that you can certainly set to your liking!

Gado gado is a warm vegetable salad, served with a spicy peanut sauce and topped with crushed krupuk, or shrimp crackers. Krupuk can be found in Asian food stores and is prepared by frying the pieces in hot oil on the stove. The salad can be assembled with as many vegetables as you like. Cabbage, bean sprouts, carrots and green beans seem to be the more traditional choices but use whatever you have available to you that showcases a colorful plate, and a variety of textures.

Not preparing a rijsttafel? Blanch the vegetables in half water, half coconut milk and finish the salad off with some grilled chicken (check the saté recipe for a tasty marinade!) to make a flavorful and refreshing summer salad!

 


Gado Gado
¼ green cabbage
2 large carrots
2 cups green beans, fresh
1 cup bean sprouts
1 cucumber
2 boiled eggs
2 boiled potatoes
½ cauliflower

Cut the vegetables in bitesize pieces and blanch in boiling water for a minute or two, depending on how crunchy or well done you like your vegetables. Peel the boiled eggs and slice them in half, lengthwise. Cut the potatoes in half. Arrange the vegetables on a plate, drizzle the warm peanut sauce on top or serve on the side. Recipe for peanut sauce in the Saté Babi link!



5 comments:

  1. I can't wait to try this. We are in the middle of an epic heatwave in New York right now. If I stick with vegetables that blanch well in a microwave I might actually be able to eat without going broke on take out food. Thank you much.

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  2. I love reading & hearing about Indo food!
    Makes me so happy.
    Will be cooking up some Rendang next week!
    Love that Indo food is getting out there.
    DO you read Cooking Light? The editor talked about Soto Ajam I think in the April issue. So fun to see it in print.

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  3. Love Indonesian food. First time I went to a Chinese restaurant in the US, I thought it would be the same as in The Netherlands. NOT....That was a rude awakening for me. Which resulted a lot of improvising of Indonesian Recipes. Great site you have.:)

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  4. wow..gado-gado...i'm from indonesia, and i love it so much

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  5. hello..i'm indonesian..so glad to see this gado-gado recipe in this blog..as indonesian, i can see that this recipe is adapted to the availability of ingredients in Netherland perhaps. but its ok..may someday all of you can taste the original gado-gado in indonesia..
    oh by the way, i love how this blog give me Holland's recipes..reminds me to my grandma..cant wait to try all of this..

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