Pecal

My family loves pecal.This is a kind of salad in peanut sauce which we eat with scalded and tossed rice vermicelli or with nasi empet. Actually I learnt to make pecal from my in-laws after I got married.We never had them when I was young as it is a Javanese dish and my husband's family, although not Javanese, live in a majority Javanese community.We have a similar kind of salad which is called gado-gado but the sauce is prepared differently.Nowadays the pecal sauce is hardly being prepared at home as it is readily available at the markets. I still prefer making them myself as I would make them less sweet but hotter.My daughter Zaty is now quite an expert assistant in preparing the pecal.

You can prepare the vegetables simultaneously with the sauce.
First boil some clean preferably filtered water in a large pot.When the water has boiled, dip in the rice vermicelli in a metal sieve or colander for a few minutes.Toss when cooked and place in a large tray.You can line the tray with banana leave if you want your pecal to be attractively served.You cook the rice vermiceli first so that it will remain white after cooking.If you dip it in the hot water after the vegetables, then you may get green vermicelli.

Vegetables:
5 Long beans, 1 bundle pucuk paku (a kind of fern shoots),1 bundle tapioca shoots,a handful of bean sprouts(taugeh), 1 bundle kangkong(water spinach),1 cucumber, 1 turnip (sengkuang).The beansprouts are scalded first. This is followed by boiling the other vegetables (except cucumber and sengkuang) separately before cutting to bite sizes.The tougher portions of the tapioca shoots, kangkong and pucuk paku are discarded.The cucumber and sengkuang are cut into small 2 to 3 cm strips.

Optional:Tempeh(soya bean cake),taufu(soya bean curd)-are fried and cut into bite sizes.

Place all the vegetables, tempeh and taufu in the tray.

This ia how I make the pecal peanut sauce:

600g peanuts
(A)Rest of Ingredients:
30 dried chillies,cut and deseeded
5 shallots or 2 onions,sliced
prawn paste or belacan, the size of the 3 cm diameter ball
3 tablespoon dried shrimps
tamarind, about double the size of belacan
All the ingredients are fried separately in a little hot oil starting with the peanuts.

Once the peanuts are crunchy, you pound them in a pestle amd mortar or grind in an electric grinder.The nuts do not have to be finely grounded.Maybe about 40% are coarsely grounded.If you feel like it, you can also pound the rest of the ingredients together except tamarind, after you have pounded and removed the peanuts into a bowl.

To mix the pecal sauce:

Place the ingredients A in a bowl and add half of the pounded peanuts.Add some sugar (3 to 4 tablespoons)and tamarind mixed with hot water.Add more hot water or peanuts as necessary for a well mixed sauce that is neither too concentrated nor too thin.Taste before adding more sugar, tamarind juice or salt.

You may eat the pecal by putting all the vegetables, vermicelli or nasi empet and tempeh and taufu in a plate and adding the sauce on top.


If you cannot find some of the vegetables, you can still prepare pecal if you have the basic ingredients, i.e. chillies,onions,belacan and tamarind.However, non-Malaysians may object to the smell of fried belacan so you have to prepare pecal or sambal for that matter, when they are not around, that is if you stay in a students' hostel.For vegetables,try similar vegetables if you cannot find Malaysian vegetables.Who knows pecal may taste better with brussel or pea sprouts,carrots,asparagus, parsnip or lettuce.