Ingredients
| ½ teaspoon coriander seeds | |
| ½ teaspoon cumin seeds | |
| ¼ teaspoon fennel seeds | |
| 6 white peppercorns (optional) | |
| 2 tablespoons plus 3 teaspoons raw sugar | |
| 1 tablespoon kecap manis | |
| 60g (½ cup) roasted peanuts, skins on or off | |
| 400g tomatoes | |
| 120g large, mild red chillies, seeds and stems discarded (leave some seeds in if you want it spicy) | |
| 2 garlic cloves, roughly sliced | |
| 4cm-piece ginger, peeled, sliced | |
| 1 large or 2 small shallots, roughly chopped | |
| 4 tablespoons coconut oil, to fry | |
| 2 teaspoons tamarind paste | |
| 200g baby cucumbers or ½ telegraph cucumber | |
| 3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar | |
| 500g small waxy potatoes, halved | |
| 200g green beans | |
| 100g bean sprouts | |
| 4 eggs, boiled, quartered |
This recipe has been a frustrating journey for me and a lesson in the importance of writing down recipes from loved ones, as their take on things can vary wildly from the standard. One of Mum’s friends, who I remember most fondly for her cooking, was Martha Bogard (Aunty Martha to us). Her Dutch-Indonesian heritage shone through her food and she shared many amazing South East Asian and European recipes. She was famous in our house for her coffee cake (which luckily I have the recipe for) and for teaching Mum gado gado, which is essentially a mixture of raw or blanched vegetables with peanut sauce, and this was on high rotation in summer months.
I still have a very clear memory of trying her peanut cracker-biscuits. Crunchy, sweet, savoury and umami, they had so much flavour and were like nothing I have ever tasted. I had assumed they were Rempayek, a spicy Indonesian fried peanut cracker, but having lost contact with the family and not having a copy of Martha’s recipe I tried recreating them, with no success. Rempayek are too savoury and they are fried, while I remember Martha’s crackers as tasting more like a sweet, savoury, spicy brandy snap. I ended up here with crunchy, sticky peanuts – a version that in no way resembles the original, but which I feel honours Martha’s from my memory – and which taste amazing scattered over salad.
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Instructions
| 1. | For the peanuts, grind the coriander, cumin, fennel and white pepper, if using, in a spice grinder or mortar and pestle to a rough grind (you still want some texture). |
| 2. | Line a baking tray with baking paper. |
| 3. | Heat a small pan over a medium heat and toast the spices for about 30 seconds until fragrant. |
| 4. | Add 2 tablespoons of the sugar and the kecap manis, stirring together and letting it bubble for a few seconds before quickly stirring in the peanuts to coat. |
| 5. | Tip out onto the paper and spread out to cool. Store in an airtight container for a week. |
| 6. | For the sambal, roughly chop half the tomatoes and put in a food processor with the chillies, garlic, ginger and shallots and process to a paste. |
| 7. | Heat the coconut oil in a frying pan over a medium heat and add the paste. Cook, stirring regularly for 20 minutes. |
| 8. | Stir in the tamarind, 1 teaspoon sugar and salt to taste and set aside to cool. |
| 9. | Store leftovers in the fridge for 2 weeks and bring to room temperature before serving as the coconut oil will harden. |
| 10. | For the gado gado, slice the baby cucumbers in half lengthwise (or quarters if very fat) or slice the telegraph cucumber into thick batons and put in a container with the remaining 2 teaspoons sugar, rice wine vinegar and a good sprinkle of salt, stir to coat and leave to pickle for at least 30 minutes but overnight is great, shaking once or twice. |
| 11. | Boil the potatoes in water until tender. Drain and cool. |
| 12. | Cook the beans in boiling water until just tender. |
| 13. | Put the bean sprouts in a colander and drain the beans over them so they blanch in the hot water. |
| 14. | Refresh with cold water and drain well. |
| 15. | To serve, slice the remaining tomatoes and arrange with the beans, potatoes, bean sprouts and eggs on four plates or a serving platter. |
| 16. | Take the cucumbers out of the pickling juice and add to the plate. |
| 17. | Spoon a few tablespoons of the juice over all the vegetables. |
| 18. | Scatter with peanuts and serve with the sambal. |
Recipes & food styling Fiona Smith / Photography Aaron McLean / Styling Fiona Lascelles