Peanut Lime Sauce

This is a sauce used over vegetable in a gado gado salad (see separate entry).

1/4 cup peanut oil
one small onion, minced
one tablespoon minced garlic
one tablespoon minced ginger
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup chunky peanut butter
1 cup water

• Heat the oil in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. 
• Add the onion and cook until just beginning to brown. 
• Add the garlic and ginger,and red pepper flakes and cook until fragrant -- about one minute.
• Add the lime juice, soy sauce, and peanut butter.
• Heat, stirring, until it begins to simmer.
• Add the water, reduce the heat to medium low, and mix well. 
• Simmer until the sauce thickens, about five minutes.

Indonesian Gado Gado Salad

This is an adaption of an Indonesian gado gado salad, in which vegetables are traditionally served with a satay (or peanut) sauce. The vegetables are stir-fried and served on a hot peanut lime sauce. The source is Christine Manfield’s cookbook, Spice (Sydney: Viking 1999). The dish was served at a dinner in Geneva prepared by an Australian visiting his daughter in 2000 who worked for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Serves 6.

200 millitres of Peanut Lime Sauce*

120 millitres Tamarind Dressing (see recipe below)

2 tablespoons chopped dry roasted peanuts

3 cloves garlic sliced

2 teaspoons minced ginger

60 millitres chili oil

Selection of the following vegetables, cut into thin strips (julienne). It is not essential to use all the vegetables. Use those of your choice, or others of a similar type.

2 large red chillies

1 sweet green pepper

1 sweet red pepper

1 small carrot

1 green zucchini

9 snow peas

Also

3 green onions, cut into pieces of 2 centimetres

3 snake beans, cut into 4 centimetre lengths and blanched

12 oyster mushrooms, halved

3 Chinese leaves, coarsely shredded

100 grams bean sprouts

2 cups watercress sprigs

• Make peanut lime sauce and keep warm. 
•  Stir fry the vegetables in a wok. Do not stew them. The vegetables should be crisp. This is best done by stir frying them in small batches, as described below, and keeping servings warm in oven. 
•  Divide ingredients into 6 separate portions. 
• For each serving, fry garlic, chilli and ginger in 2 teaspoons of chilli oil for about one minute. 
•  Add  all vegetables (except the cabbage, bean sprouts and water cress), and stir fry for a minute or two, until the vegetables start to wilt. 
• Add cabbage and bean sprouts with tamarind dressing and toss to combine. 
• Stir water cress through hot vegetables and remove from heat. 
• Spread hot peanut sauce on each plate and pile on stir-friend vegetables. 
• Top with roasted peanuts and serve immediately. 
• Serve extra peanut lime sauce in a separate bowl.

Tamarind Dressing

100 millitres tamarind liquid*

20 grams palm sugar, shaved

75 millitres strained lime juice

1 teaspoon ginger juice or minced ginger

25 millitres fish sauce

1 teaspoon sesame oil

• Mix all ingredients together.

*  See separate recipe.

** You make tamarind liquid by putting a block of tamarind into hot water and mashing it with your hand to get a thick gooey liquid. 

Indonesian Lamb Satay

One of my most popular dishes. I often serve it with tabouli (which is Middle Eastern, not Indonesian), but it can also be served with rice.

Serves 8-10 people.

July 2002 - in Podgorica, Montenegro

Half a leg of lamb (about 3 pounds). A full leg of lamb if you are serving more people. (In this case, double the recipe for the marinade/sauce.) Have the butcher bone the lamb and cut it into small chunks. You, then, simply have to cut the meat into one-inch cubes, trimming away any fat or gristle.

Marinade

½ cup Indonesian soy sauce (or  ½ cup regular soy sauce plus 1 teaspoon of dark molasses)

1 teaspoon of ground hot red pepper (vary according to taste).

¾ cup hot water

½  cup chunky peanut butter (if you prefer, you can reduce the amount of peanut butter to 1/3 cup and add ½ cup ground dry roasted peanuts)

1-2 cloves garlic, minced

juice of a lemon

• Combine all the ingredients for the marinade and bring to a boil in a saucepan, stirring until smooth.
• Remove from the heat and cool to room temperature
• Use half the sauce to marinade the meat or chicken, reserving the remainder of the sauce. Turn meat in the marinade from time to time.
• Marinade the lamb in half the sauce for at least an hour, Skewer lamb on small wooden skewers.
• Cook lamb over charcoal, if possible, otherwise, under the broiler. Do not overcook. Turn the meat as it is cooking. Each skewer should take no more than 5 minutes.
• Serve with hot peanut sauce.

 Additional ingredients for sauce

1 cup tomato sauce

juice of another lemon

1 teaspoon tobasco sauce

¼ cup water or stock

• To the rest of the sauce, add ¼  cup water or stock (beef, chicken or vegetable), the tomato sauce, the juice of another lemon and the tobasco sauce.
• In a small saucepan, bring the ingredients to a boil – and then remove from the heat.
• Adjust seasoning – you can add more lemon juice, more tobasco sauce.
• Serve sauce as an accompaniment to the skewered lamb or chicken.