kuah gado2: gado-gado gravy (recipe)

i had decided to invite some friends over for a lil hari raya gathering. since it was a small group, decided to cook. with the help of mum and phyz, we did gado-gado together with sate goreng. the sate goreng was ordered and the gado-gado was a no brainer fixing it up. except for the gado-gado gravy.

here i cheated..lol i served the gado-gado together with the sate gravy which came with the order..not the correct gravy for gado-gado..but both being peanut based, i thought they will do and my friends didnt complain. in fact the sate gravy was delicious :P

anyway, tis is the gado-gado gravy recipe that i got from a grandaunt,nenek kam. she apparently learnt from my late granny. but i decided not to do it from scratch..coz it is tedious. it's the peanut/groundnut thing again. she emphasized that the groundnuts have to be roasted (goreng?) just right. kena jaga tak boleh mentah (under-roasted) or gosong (over-roasted/burnt). kalau mentah atau gosong,kena buang semua. throw the whole lot. she said that so many times..it scared me of making it.

i scribbled the following on the back of an envelope as she narrated the recipe, time kita pergi visit nenek kam's house during raya. i think this is the real stuff..hahah coz if you come across the recipes floating online..they use peanut butter as the base. how can!


gado-gado gravy

part 1: 1 kg kacang tanah (groundnuts), roasted then grinded

part 2: 4 senduk (? she said this is not tbsp..but bigger than that. so i suppose any spoon that is 1.5x tbsp) lada kering (dried chillies) grounded to make the chilli paste.

part 3:
-10 ulas bawang kecik (shallots)
- about 1 ibujari (hmm how many cm is tis?) kunyit basah
belnd/grind the above together

part 4:
oil, sugar & water

steps:
- sautee part 3 in oil for sometime. then add part 2. add sugar and water to taste and consistency and lastly part 1. mix and add water and sugar as needed.


* decided on gado-gado partly due to dietary requirements of some of my friends and partly due to the fact that since it is not a sit-down meal,rather freeflow, i didnt want to be bothered worrying about reheating..hahah so salad like gado-gado is perfect eh. it required some preparatory work..like i gorenged 3 types of keropok


(one of which i served with first attempt of thai mango salad/kerabu. that's another story) but all the prep work could spread out to the day before so it wasnt too bad.

we had also used banana leaves which i got from tekka on the serving plates..coz the plates were in different designs..not so presentable. and some extra leaves were made to good use together with my 'starting to wilt' raya orchids..nilah hasilnya bila selalu sangat flip donnahay and w&d magazines kat kinokuniya



the boy was assigned to help with this..and a point to note though, he stapled at the wrong part for some of the cups..and we had no QC check beforehand in the rush to get things ready..so some cups bocorlah.