Indonesia’s popular salad, gado gado, is made with the same delicious peanut sauce as satay (see video below). Gado gado translates as ‘jumbled’ and can be as simple or elaborate as you like, so add some lontong (compressed rice), boiled potato, boiled eggs, and/or fried tempeh or tofu if you want to turn it into more of a complete meal; bean sprouts and shredded cabbage are popular additions too. In West Java a similar salad, called karedok, is made with raw vegetable including long beans and small green eggplants. Pecel is another peanut sauce-dressed vegetable salad, this time originating in Java; while ketroprak (typically containing rice vermicelli, tofu and rice cake) is a similar dish from Jakarta. So let your imagination run wild and create your own peanut-sauce-dressed jumble of ingredients. I like to present my gado gado with the ingredients arranged around the sauce bowl, then people can jumble them up with as much or little sauce as they like on their plate, but you can serve it already dressed and jumbled if you like. Krupuk are Indonesian crackers cooked in a similar way to papadums, by deep-frying for a few seconds until they puff up. I love a glass of Aussie riesling with my gado gado. I want a good balance of fruit and acid and a full, slightly toasty, palate to match the big flavours in the peanut sauce. The Dry Dam riesling from d’Arenberg is spot on.
Serves 2–4
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