Gado Gado (Indonesian Salad)

The post for Little Thumbs Up October: Soya Beans is here. Please go to this link to submit your posting. Thank you!

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As a veggie and salad lover, the Gado Gado, a Indonesia salad, is one of my favourite salads of all time. I love the mix of ingredients, which could be any of your favourite vegetables. Mine top picks for Gado Gado would be long beans, potatoes, bean sprouts and fried bean curd and tempeh. I have seen other Gado Gado which uses cabbage, spinach and chayote - so its really up to your imagination. 

The best part about Gado Gado is undoubtedly the sauce - a thick, creamy and slightly tangy mixture of peanuts, tamarind juice, prawn paste, chilli and sugar.  In some versions, coconut milk is also added for texture fragrance and creaminess. In this recipe, I substituted ground cashew nuts for peanuts. It was very delicious as well given that cashews have a lovely flavour. Still I much prefer the peanut version. 

The toppings and garnish for the Gado Gado is a must and this could be fried shallots, boiled eggs and lots of crackers. The most delicious would be the slightly bitter Melingjo nut crackers (which is quite hard to find locally) or one can simply use fish crackers. The entire combination is simply divine!

Gado Gado (Serves 2-3)

Sauce recipe from here

Salad

• 2 pieces of firm tofu (tau kwa), pan fried in a little oil
• 1 piece of tempeh, pan fried in a little oil
• 1 potato, sliced and boiled
• 1 Japanese cucumber, sliced
• 1 tomato, sliced
• 50 g of bean sprouts, blanched
• 150 g of long beans, blanched
• Romaine leaves or Butterhead lettuce leaves

Garnish

• 2 hard boiled eggs
• Crackers
• Fried shallots

Sauce

Ingredients

• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp dried shrimp paste
• 3 red bird's eye chillis, cut up
• 1/4 of palm sugar, dissolved in 1/4 cup of water over a slow fire
• 1 cup of finely grounded roasted peanut (or 1 cup peanut butter) - I used 1 cup of grounded cashew nuts
• 20 g of tamarind with 1/4 hot water, remove the seeds 
• 1/2 to 1 cup of water, depending on desired thickness of sauce

Method

• Grind these ingredients with a mortar and pestle or in a blender until they’re smooth: salt, dried shrimp paste, red bird’s eye chilis, palm sugar 
• Add finely ground roasted peanuts (or 1 cup of peanut butter) and grind it all some more until it’s mixed well. If you use peanut butter instead of ground roasted peanuts, add less salt because there’s salt in the peanut butter.
• Add tamarind juice to the mixture. 
• Add ½ to 1 cup of water and mix it well. Amount of water depends on how thick you want sauce to be.
• Transfer the vegetables to a serving plate and pour the sauce on top of it or mix all the vegetables with the sauce in the mortar before serving.

This post is linked to the event, Little Thumbs up organised by Doreen from my little favourite DIY and Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids, hosted by Mich of Piece of Cake at this post.

Sesame Peanut Noodles

I really do enjoy a light and healthy salad lunch and when I came across this recipe - the peanut lover in me just had to give it a try. 

Here is Nigella's Sesame Peanut Noodle - egg noodles (in my case I used spaghetti) tossed in a flavourful peanut sauce, topped with crunchy vegetables and garnished with sesame seeds.  

The sauce made of peanut butter, sesame oil, garlic oil, chilli and lime juice was refreshing, flavourful and aromatic. 

I added a sprinkle of crushed peanuts as well as my favourite pan fried bean curd to go with the salad. It is easy to prepare and can also be eaten straight out of the refrigerator. This is one of those recipes I won't get tired of having!

Sesame Peanut Noodles (serves 6)

Recipe by Nigella

Ingredients

for the dressing

• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon garlic infused olive oil
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons sweet chilli sauce
• 100 grams smooth peanut butter
• 2 tablespoons lime juice
• 4 tbsp water (my own addition)

for the salad

• 125 grams mangetout (snow peas)
• 150 grams beansprouts (rinsed)
• 1 red pepper (deseeded and cut into small strips)
• 2 spring onions (finely sliced)
• 550 grams egg noodles (ready prepared)
• 20 grams sesame seeds
• 4 tablespoons chopped fresh coriander
• 2 tbsp of crushed peanuts (my own addition)
• 2 pieces of tau gua, cut into pieces and lightly pan fried (my own addition)

Method

• Whisk together all the dressing ingredients in a bowl or jug.
• Put the mangetout, beansprouts, red pepper strips, sliced spring onions and the noodles into a bowl.
• Pour the dressing over them and mix thoroughly to coat everything well.
• Sprinkle with the sesame seeds and chopped coriander and pack up as needed.

My notes: 

• I added 4 tbsp of water to the dressing as I found it too dry
• I used 500 g of cooked spaghetti.
• I stir fried the bean sprouts, snow peas and red peppers over medium heat for about 3-4 mins before adding into the noodles.
• I didn't mix in all the cooked vegetables, I left some as garnish.

This is for Cook Like A Star hosted by Zoe from Bake for Happy Kids, Joyce from Kitchen Flavours and Anuja from Simple Baking. 

Korean Jap Chae

When I was first saw this Korean Jap Chae dish on Herbavoracios, I was immediately drawn to the vibrant colours of this stir fried dish. I've only eaten the Chinese type of "Chap Chye" where there's a mix of different types of vegetables fried with some glass noodles/vermicelli. I've never cooked Korean food before and this one didn't look too complicated so I made this for dinner one Sunday.  

This recipe calls for sweet potato starch cellophane noodles called dangmyeon - I found these at the Korean section of the supermarket.

The recipe is fairly straight forward, but a little time consuming. This is because all the ingredients for the dish is cooked individually before it is combined to form the dish. According to the recipe's writer, Alice of Savoury Sweet Life, by frying them individually, the flavor and color of each vegetable is preserved without any cross blending of the other ingredients. As a result, the frying pan becomes more seasoned as layers of umami (pleasant savoury taste) build on each other.  

The final dish is a delightful and flavourful mix of noodles, colourful vegetables and tofu. I'd have to say this is one of the most beautiful Korean dishes I have seen. It is tasty and aromatic - the noodles are springy and firm to the bite. The noodles, vegetables, tofu and sesame seeds provide a wonderful blend of texture to the dish, while the sesame oil and pepper makes it amazingly fragrant.

There appears to be quite alot of oil and sesame oil used in the recipe. Because I prefer a less oily dish, I have cut down on the amount. Do adjust it according to your family's taste. My whole family gave this amazing Korean dish a big thumbs up.

Korean Jap Chae

Recipe Serves 2-3 as a main dish, or 4-6 as a side dish

Recipe from Herbivoracious

Ingredients

• 1 bundle of sweet potato starch cellophane noodles called dangmyeon (I used 200 g)
• 1/2 bunch of fresh spinach
• 1/2 medium yellow onion, julienned
• 1 carrot, peeled and cut into match sticks
• 1/2 red bell pepper, julienned
• 8-10 fresh shiitake mushrooms, sliced
• 2 stalks green onions, sliced in 1.5” slices (green parts only)
• ½ block of firm tofu, cut into small rectangle pieces (approx. 1.5”x1”x.25”)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• Olive oil or Canola oil  (amounts will vary, please see directions)
• soy sauce  (amounts will vary, please  see directions)
• sesame oil (amounts will vary, please see directions)
• salt and pepper
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 3 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds

Method

• Boil one bundle of noodles for 5 minutes until softened and al dente in texture.  Drain the noodles and do not rinse.  Add noodles to a large mixing bowl and cut them three times with kitchen shears.
• Add 2 tablespoons each of soy sauce and sesame seed oil (I added only 1 tablespoon of each).  Toss noodles until sauce is evenly distributed and set aside.  Using the same pot as the noodles, add enough water to boil spinach for 1 minute.  Remove spinach from water and allow to cool just enough to squeeze as much water out as possible. Cut spinach in thirds, and massage it while seasoning with 1 teaspoon of sesame oil and a pinch of salt and pepper.  Add spinach to the large noodle filled bowl.
• Heat a wok or large frying pan on high.  Add 1 teaspoon of olive oil and cook sliced onions for 2 minutes stirring them as they start to turn translucent.  Season with a 1/2 teaspoon of sesame oil and a pinch of salt and pepper. Add onions to the large bowl of noodles.  
• Repeat the same process as the onions except reduce cooking times to 30 seconds for the carrots, 2 minutes for the bell red pepper, 1 minute for the shiitake mushrooms, and 10 seconds for the green onions.  
• Fry tofu squares for 1 minute per side – but do not add tofu to the large bowl of noodles.
• Add 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, 1 tablespoon of sesame oil (I used 1/2 tbsp), and 2 tablespoons of sugar (I omitted), and ½ teaspoon of ground pepper to the large noodle bowl and toss everything until well mixed.
• Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil (I added just a few drops) to the hot wok and add minced garlic.  Allow garlic to cook for a few seconds and add the entire bowl of mix noodles and vegetables to the wok/pan.  Stir-fry everything for 2-3 minutes and turn off heat.  Gently add tofu and transfer noodles to a large serving platter. Sprinkle toasted sesame seeds on top.  Serve warm or cold.  Enjoy!.

I'm linking this post to Little Thumbs Up event, organized by Zoe from Bake For Happy Kids and Doreen for my little favourite D.I.Y., and hosted by Joyce, kitchen flavours.

This is for Made for Love Mondays by Javelin Warrior. 

Summer Corn Salad

I'm on a mission to get my family to eat more healthily. This means more vegetables and salads on the daily menu. As we are a family of corn lovers, I went on a hunt for a corn salad recipe. This particular one caught my eye as the colours were so vibrant. 

My family enjoyed this beautiful salad which is chock full of fresh veggies and basil, and feta cheese. The fresh vegetables gave it a lovely crunch and the salad was rich, tangy flavor and very aromatic from the basil leaves. It was a salad our whole family enjoyed.

It was part of the Kenny Rogers meal which I served my family along with some some delicious corn muffins!

Summer Corn Salad (Serves 4)

Recipe from Taste of Home

Ingredients

• 5 teaspoons olive oil, divided
• 1 tablespoon lime juice
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
• 1-1/2 cups fresh or frozen corn, thawed
• 1-1/2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1/2 cup finely chopped cucumber
• 1/4 cup finely chopped red onion
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh basil or 2 teaspoons dried basil
• 1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese

Method

• In a small bowl, whisk 4 teaspoons oil, lime juice, salt and pepper sauce; set aside.
• In a large skillet, cook and stir corn in remaining oil over medium-high heat until tender. Transfer to a salad bowl; cool slightly. Add the tomatoes, cucumber, onion and basil. Drizzle with dressing and toss to coat.
• Let stand for 10 minutes before serving or refrigerate until chilled. Sprinkle with cheese just before serving. 

This post is linked to the event, Little Thumbs up organised by Doreen from my little favourite DIY and me, Bake for Happy Kids, hosted by Esther from Copycake Kitchen, at this post. 

Avocado Tomato Salsa

I love both avocados and tomatoes and was even more thrilled to learn about the results of a study that found that eating avocado and tomato together has big health benefits. Researchers at Ohio State University discovered that when avocado was added to salsa, study participants absorbed four and a half times the amount of lycopene from the tomatoes. That was a good enough reason to make this Avocado Tomato Salsa recipe from Delia Smith's website. 

The salad was tangy, creamy and crunchy (from the onions) all in one bite and has a wonderfully refreshing aroma from the lime juice and parsley. I left out the Tobasco sauce because I didn't want it spicy in case the kids couldn't eat it, I am sure it would have been even better with Tobasco.  

I served my Avocado Tomato Salsa with Herb Baked Salmon. The Salmon and the Salsa really went very well together and made the salmon more flavourful. 

I really enjoyed this Avocado Tomato Salsa and would be sure to make it again. 

This is for Cook like a Star, Delia Smith blog hop event, hosted by Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids, Baby Sumo from Eat your heart out and Mich from Piece of Cake. Grab the HTML Code for the event here.

This post is linked to the event, Little Thumbs up organised by Doreen from my little favourite DIY and Zoe from Bake for Happy Kids, hosted by Doreen from my little favourite DIY, at this post.

This is for Javelin Warrior's Made with Love Mondays.

Avocado Tomato Salsa

From Delia Smith's Summer Collection

Ingredients

•  1 ripe but firm avocado
•  2 large firm tomatoes
•  ½ small red onion
•  2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
•  1 rounded tablespoon chopped fresh coriander
•  a few drops Tabasco sauce
•  salt and freshly milled black pepper

Method

• Skin the tomatoes by pouring boiling water over them, then leaving for exactly 1 minute before draining and slipping the skins off when they're cool enough to handle. Then cut each tomato in half and, holding each half over a saucer (cut side downwards), squeeze gently to extract the seeds. Now chop the tomato flesh as finely as possible.
• Next halve the avocado, remove the stone, cut each half into quarters and peel off the skin. Chop the avocado into minutely small dice, and do the same with the onion. Finally combine everything together in a bowl, adding seasoning, the lime juice, chopped coriander and a few drops of Tabasco. Cover with clingfilm and leave on one side for an hour before serving to allow the flavours to develop. Serve this salsa with either grilled or baked salmon.

Thai Chicken and Noodle Salad

I’m a huge fan of Thai food and this Thai Chicken and Noodle Salad is not only easy to do but is perfect as a light meal after all the feasting during Christmas.

The secret is really in the sauce which is made of readily available kitchen sauces, which most of us would already have the pantry.

The dish is salty, sweet, spicy and crunchy (raw vegetables and peanuts) all it once. It is very aromatic from the basil leaves and very refreshing. The addition of mint leaves gives additional flavour and goes well with the basil. 

Thai Chicken and Noodle Salad (4 servings)

A Martha Stewart recipe

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 pounds (550 g) boneless, skinless chicken breasts, thinly sliced crosswise or minced
• Spicy Asian Dressing* (recipe below)
• Coarse salt
• 3 1/2 ounces (100 g) Chinese rice noodles, broken in half if long (I use Tang Hoon/Glass Noodles)
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil, such as safflower
• 2 carrots, sliced into ribbons with a vegetable peeler
• 1 English cucumber, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced crosswise
• 1/4 cup fresh basil, torn
• Bean sprouts, chopped peanuts, fresh mint leaves, red-pepper flakes, and sliced scallion greens, for garnish (optional)

Method

1. Place chicken and half of dressing in a resealable plastic bag (reserve remaining dressing). Marinate at room temperature for 30 minutes (or refrigerate up to overnight).
2. In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook noodles until tender. Drain, and rinse under cold water to stop the cooking. Transfer to a platter.
3. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high. Working in batches, cook chicken (do not crowd skillet) until cooked through, 1 to 2 minutes; transfer to platter on top of noodles.
4. Top with carrots, cucumber, and basil. Drizzle with reserved dressing, and sprinkle with garnishes, if desired.

Spicy Asian Dressing
Ingredients

• 4 thinly sliced scallion whites
• 2 minced garlic cloves
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/2 cup rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons light-brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
• 1/2 teaspoon anchovy paste (I used 1/2 tsp reduced salt fish sauce)
• 1/2 teaspoon red-pepper flakes

Method

1. In a medium bowl, mix together all ingredients.