PECEL

This was our lunch, it was so delicious and everybody in my family (especially my sisters and I) love it very much. It was a nice change after we indulged our self with all delicious food during christmas and new year's eve.

This recipe is very easy, you can use any vegetables you like, steam them and serve with peanut sauce, recipe follow. Originally come from East Java, and it is also consider a street eaten for breakfast accompany by steam rice, fried tempe, fried tofu, and krupuk. It is simply the best breakfast! 

In Indonesia, there are so many different peanut sauce, they all slightly differ from each other, depending  on what are you going to use it for (for example and the most common well know here in America is Gado-gado, and the peanut sauce for satay), they all have the same basic ingredient which is ground fried peanut, garlic, and chilies.

This one I like more then the other, it is more fragrant, and has that slight aroma that you will not get from other peanut sauce. The aroma of "kencur" (unfortunately there is no substitute for this pungent root, if you do try to substitute it with other let say, ginger, it will give totally different taste to the sauce). Of course, living here in CA, I am so fortunate to be able to get kencur from the chinese grocery, they sold in powder, and you can also get it sliced in a frezzer section. I haven't found the fresh one yet, I know I will one day! Nothing seems impossible in California, you know.

1 cup spanish raw peanuts
2 clove garlic
10 thai chillies
1 tbs palm sugar
½ tbs seedless tamarine pulp
5 kaffir lime leaves
½ tsp kencur powder, or 2 slices fresh/frozen 
salt, to taste
oil for frying the peanut

• Fry the peanuts in oil until slightly brown, transfer to a plate lined with paper towel to absorb all the excess oil. Don't over cook the peanuts, or your sauce will turn bitter.


• In a large mortar and pestle, put the rest of ingredients (without the oil), and pound them in to a paste. Transfer to a jar and keep in the refrigerator until needed, up to three days. 


• When you are ready to use the paste, mix it with a little bit of water to make a sauce, the consistency of the sauce is really up to you. I like mine very thick, so I only add a little water to the paste. It's easy, no?

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