My Lazy Weekend with My Hometown Favorite Dish
- Paula Anindia
- May 6, 2017
- 6 min read
Today's theme in my kitchen is lazy weekend because I was so busy on weekdays at the office, therefore I decide to make simple, healthy and easy dish for our lunch, which is "Pecel". Pecel is a traditional food from Central Java, Indonesia. Pecel is cooked vegetables salad, dressing with sweet and spicy peanut sauce.
The vegetables commonly used are spinach, kangkoong (water spinach), white cabbage, bean sprout, and long bean. At my hometown; Semarang, another vegetable can be used is papaya leaf and we call it "paitan" means bitter veggies because papaya leaf has bitter taste. If you buy pecel in Semarang, the seller lady will ask you whether you want to add "paitan" or not because not every people likes papaya leaf. In Jakarta, chayote can be added too but in my opinion, chayote isn't suitable for pecel because it contains lots of water inside and it will make pecel be tasteless.
Pecel served with sweet and spicy peanut sauce. The peanut sauce consists of peanut, garlic, chili, palm sugar, galingale, keffir-lime leaf, tamarind and salt. We can make the peanut sauce by our self but nowadays there are many packaged peanut sauce sold in the grocery stores and fresh market so we can save our time. The package peanut sauce can be used just mixed with hot water until well combined.
Pecel is different with "Gado-Gado" even both of them are served with peanut sauce. Gado-Gado contains more veggies than pecel, beside spinach, kangkoong (water spinach), white cabbage, bean sprout, long bean; Gado-Gado also contains sliced boiled potato, lontong (rice cake), cucumber, and sliced raw tomatoes. The peanut sauce for Gado-Gado doesn't contain galingale and sweeter than peanut sauce for pecel.
There's another variant of pecel in East Java which is called "Pecel Madiun" (Madiun is a city at East Java province). Pecel Madiun is ordinary pecel served with sweet and spicy peanut sauce, but added sunny side up on the top.
Pecel in Semarang, Central Java, usually served with many kind of side dishes, but doesn't use sunny side up. The side dishes such as sweet braised tofu, Rempeyek (peanut crackers), Gendar (rice crackers), sweet braised quail eggs skewers, snail skewers, 'bantal' (fried veggies martabak), chicken blood, veggies fritters etc. Everytime I'm going back to Semarang, I have to eat pecel Semarang and always impressed with the side dishes, but the most important thing from eating pecel Semarang is eating it not with plate but with "PINCUK" (pincuk means banana leaf shaped like a cone as substitute of ordinary plate). Unfortunately, I don't have banana leaf so today I just use plate (so sad....)
I make pecel today with veggies fritters and fry some gendar (rice crackers) as side dishes. This recipe is for 2 - 3 portions. It's so simple and easy to make it. Let's take a look my cook!
The ingredients are 1 bunch spinach, 1 bunch kangkoong (water spinach), half round of white cabbage, 1 handful of bean sprout, 1 bunch long bean and 1 packaged peanut sauce.
Bring to boil 1.5 liter of water in a large pot over medium heat, add 1 tsp salt. Meanwhile waiting the water boiling, roughly chopped the white cabbage.
Then, chopped long bean into 4 cm length.
The first vegetable shimmered is cabbage because it has white color so the water will still clear to shimmer green veggies.
Meanwhile, bring to boil 300 ml water in a small pot over medium heat. Turn off the heat after boiled and soak bean sprout for 2 minutes and drain it.
Shimmered white cabbage in boiling water for 5 minutes until soft and the color change to translucent. Drain it without turn off the heat. The second vegetable is long bean, shimmered it only 2 minutes until soft and the color is changed brightly. Drain it.
Still in the same pot, next is shimmering kangkoong only for 1 minutes. Drain it.
The last is shimmering spinach only for 1 minute. Drain it.
Set aside the vegetables and let it cool.
Next step is making the side dish, which is veggies fritters or I call it here as "Bakwan Sayur" or "Bala-Bala" or "Badak". The ingredients are 1/4 round of white cabbage, 1 carrot, 1 handful of bean sprout mixed with seasoned flour and water, then deep fried in hot oil.
First, roughly chopped white cabbage and julienne cut the carrot. Set aside.
Next, prepare a large mixing bowl and add 10 tbs plain flour, 5 tbs potato starch and 7 tbs white rice flour, mixed well.
Add 3 cloves minced garlic, 1 tsp white pepper, 1 1/2 tsp salt, 2 tsp coriander powder, 1 tsp turmeric powder, mixed until well combined.
Pour 300 ml water little by little into the mixed flour and stirred using whisk to be thick and creamy batter.
Add all the veggies into the batter and mixed until well combined.
Bring coconut oil in the large pot over medium heat at 325 F degrees. Drop a scoop mixed batter ony by one into the hot oil.
Deep fried the veggies fritters for 3.5 minutes until golden and crisp. Repeat the step into few batches until the batter is done.
Drain on the wire rack to reduce excess oil. No need to sprinkle salt but if you taste and less salty, you can sprinkle a little bit of salt while the fritters still hot.
Look the inside of veggies fritters. All veggies are cooked perfectly, it's crunchy, crispy and gooey.
The last step is preparing the peanut sauce. I use 1 packaged peanut sauce. It's not spicy, but if you want spicy one, add some mashed red chili into the peanut sauce.
Removed the peanut sauce from its package, placed into the heat resistance bowl and pour 300 ml hot water and mixed using spoon until well combined (If your want a thicker sauce, reduce the amount of water).
Placed the veggies on a plate, add 1 or 2 pulled veggies fritters on the top.
Then, drizzled with peanut sauce and served with gendar (rice cracker), sprinkled with crispy fried shallots. Add sunny side up to change the version like "Pecel Madiun"
This dish is totally a healthy comfort food, the veggies are not soggy, still crunchy. The fritters, gendar and sunny side up is perfectly matched with sweet and herbs peanut sauce. This dish makes me missed my hometown so much!! Hopes you like the recipe. Enjoy!!
Get the recipe: Pecel Semarang
portion: 3
Active time: 25 minutes
Ingredients for Pecel:
1 bunch spinach, trimmed the stem
1 bunch kangkoong (water spinach), trimmed the stem
1 bunch long bean, cut 4 cm lengthwise
1/2 round white cabbage, roughly chopped
1 handful of bean sprout
1.5 liter water to shimmer the veggies
1 tsp salt
300 ml water to soak bean sprout
Ingredients for Veggis Fritters:
10 tbs plain flour
5 tbs potato starch
7 tbs white rice flour
1/4 round white cabbage, roughly chopped
1 carrot, julienne cut
1 handful of bean sprout
300 ml water
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp white pepper
3 cloves minced garlic
2 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp turmeric powder
Coconut Oil (or Canola Oil) to deep fry
Side Dish and Garnish:
Gendar (rice crackers)
Sunny Side Up (optional; skipped for vegan)
Crispy fried shallots
Directions:
1. Bring to boil water in a large pot over medium heat, add salt. Shimmered white cabbage in boiling water for 5 minutes until soft and the color change to translucent. Drain it without turn off the heat.
2. The second vegetable is long bean, shimmered it only 2 minutes until soft and the color is changed brightly. Drain it.
3. Still in the same pot, next is shimmering kangkoong only for 1 minutes. Drain it.
4. The last is shimmering spinach only for 1 minute. Drain it.
5. Bring to boil water in a small pot over medium heat. Turn off the heat after boiled and soak bean sprout for 2 minutes and drain it. Set aside the vegetables and let it cool.
6. Peanut Sauce: removed the peanut sauce from its package, placed into the heat resistance bowl and pour hot water and mixed using spoon until well combined.
7. Veggies Fritters: prepared a large mixing bowl and add plain flour, potato starch and white rice flour, mixed well.
8. Add minced garlic, white pepper, salt, coriander powder, turmeric powder, mixed until well combined.
9. Pour water little by little into the mixed flour and stirred using whisk to be thick and creamy batter. Add all the veggies into the batter and mixed until well combined.
10. Bring coconut oil in the large pot over medium heat at 325 F degrees. Drop a scoop mixed batter ony by one into the hot oil. Deep fried the veggies fritters for 3.5 minutes until golden and crisp. Repeat the step into few batches until the batter is done. Drain on the wire rack to reduce excess oil.
11. Placed the veggies on a plate, add 1 or 2 pulled veggies fritters on the top. Then, drizzled with peanut sauce and served with gendar (rice cracker), sprinkled with crispy fried shallots. Add sunny side up to change the version like "Pecel Madiun"
Comments