The brilliant sunshine that woke me up today at the ridiculous hour of 5am reminded me that it is, very clearly, summertime. So after covering my head with a pillow to try and snatch another hour or so of sleep, I decided tonight would be the perfect time to delve into the Summer Entertaining section of my book.
Both the look and the taste of this salad depend on not overcooking the snap peas and green beans. The snap peas are pretty delicate and need less than a minute of blanching. You are aiming for maximum greeness – soggy snap peas won’t do. Green beans are a bit less finicky.
In terms of preparation beyond the blanching – there’s not much. Mixing the veggies together with the feta provided a great contrast of white green. Chop up and throw in the remaining ingredients and toss together the dressing and you’re done. The dressing base is greek style yogurt, and the fresh mint really pulls together the flavours – simple, but good. The sweet snap peas pair really well with the salty feta, so I tried to match up a bit of both on each forkful. I served the salad to a group of friends and most asked for the recipe. It was so good I made it again the next night.
In our house, peanut butter rules. Second only to our late night addiction to cereal, a peanut butter and jam sandwich is an easy way to solve the absence of dinner or lunch. So even though I just chose the gado gado with peanut sauce, I couldn’t resist trying out this recipe, which includes a peanut-based dipping sauce to accompany the wedges.
Let’s be honest – sweet potatoes aren’t as pretty as their close cousin, the yam. However, nutritionists swear that sweet potatoes are crammed full of vitamin goodness. A choice of either baking or deep-frying is given with this recipe and being the healthy type, I chose baking.
The sauce recipe includes a spicy chile pepper but advocates seeding the pepper. I’m not sure why you would take away the source of the spice so I left most of the seeds.
I served the wedges with some baked snapper and steamed chard. Together, it made a simple meal that you could serve to friends or family even on a weeknight where you don’t have a chance to start cooking until after 6pm (like me tonight).
The sweet potatoes turned out creamy and the sauce was addictive, a perfect amount of spice and not too heavy. Although the recipe was supposed to serve four people, we ate pretty much everything, even with our fish.
I have to admit I’ve been a bit lazy to date with this project, because I’ve been only choosing pretty simple recipes. Today’s choice seems appropriate for a hot day and since it’s Saturday I have a bit of time on my hands. There is an entire page of directions which is a bit daunting.
Gado Gado is a mainstay of Indonesian cooking, essentially a vegetable salad distinguished by a spicy peanut sauce, usually poured over the salad with a heavy hand. In Indonesia, you can find Gado Gado in hawker’s stalls and have a fresh batch – even the sauce – cooked right in front of you.
The salad itself is cold and consists of a medley of unexpected vegetables such as white cabbage (which I couldn’t find so I’m using savoy cabbage, which is a good substitute because it’s also a mild cabbage), green beans, cucumbers and bean sprouts.
New potatoes provide the foundation for the salad. I began a bit badly by over-boiling the potatoes. But by immediately rinsing them in cold water, draining and then putting in the fridge I think I’ve salvaged them, although I think the texture may be a bit mushy for a salad. The satay sauce has an extensive list of ingredients but makes a fair batch so you could use it for a second meal.
I bought dry roasted peanuts instead of roasting my own. I decided to crush the peanuts as requested the old-fashioned way – with a rolling pin. Easier than cleaning the food processor!
The eggs were a bit fiddly, basically you need to cook an omelette, let it cool, then cut into strips for the desired shape and texture. Dave demonstrated to correct way to flip an omelette, unfortunately I missed the shot.
With a pile of multi-coloured vegetables topped with steaming satay sauce, the salad was visually appealing as well as really tasty. Impressive fare for a dinner party. The recipe is supposed to serve 4 as a main course but I have likely over-estimated the amount of veggies needed because we ended up with enough veggies for the week…
