Saturday 31 August 2013

Pecal - A Perak-syle

The Pecal recipe that I'm sharing with you tonight is a type of salad which is a cross between gado-gado & rojak petis. The assortment of vegetables added in this dish is almost similar to but not as wide as that of a typical gado-gado. The sauce is quite similar to that of the rojak petis except that here, the petis (black shrimp paste a.s.a. hae ko) is replaced with the dried shrimps. Also, unlike the rojak sauce, shallots are added into this sauce & most of the ingredients used are cooked first before they are blended & combined.



Pecal - A Perak-syle (Salad with Peanut Sauce)
Recipe by Datin Norsiah Bakhiri
fromA Taste of Batu Gajah, Traditional Malay Family Recipes by Datin Seri Raihan Abdul Rahman.

Ingredients:
200 g or 1 bundle kangkung, remove hard stems & cut into small pieces
200g taugeh (bean sprouts), cleaned
6 strands long beans, cut into 2-inch lengths
1 cucumber, cut into strips
1 medium-sized sengkuang (sweet turnip), cut into strips
4 pcs fresh soft tofu (bean curd), deep fried & sliced
3 eggs, hard boiled & cut into wedges

Sauce:
500g peanuts
10 pcs dried chillies, sliced
4 shallots, sliced
2 tbsp udang  kering (dried shrimp)
1-inch square belacan (shrimp paste), roasted
2 level tbsp seedless tamarind paste or 2 tbsp asam jawa (tamarind pulp) mixed with 1/4 cup water, seeds discarded
2 tbsp white sugar - I used dark brown sugar (gula timbang).
1 cup hot water
salt to taste

Method:
  1. In a hot wok, fry the peanuts without any oil, stirring constantly to avoid burning.
  2. Transfer the fried peanuts onto a tray & remove the skin. They will come off quite easily after being fried.
  3. Pound the peanuts with a mortar & pestle until they are broken into thin pieces, but are not too fine. Alternatively, you can roughtly grind them in a food processor.
  4. In a wok or pan, fry the dried chillies, shallots & dried shrimp - one ingredient at a time - & set aside. Some oil is required for frying the dried shrimp, so start with the other two.
  5. Pound these fried ingredients together with the shrimp paste.
  6. Mix the pounded ingredients with the pounded or ground peanuts & transfer to a large bowl ( for easy mixing).
  7. Add in the tamarind paste, sugar & hot water. Make sure everything is thoroughly mixed, then season with salt accordingly.
  8. Just before serving, toss the vegetables & tofu with the sauce, making sure the ingredients are coated with this delectable peanut sauce.
I'm submitting this post to the Malaysian Food Fest (Perak Month) hosted by Wendy of Table for 2 .. or more &  Cook Your Books No 3 organised by Joyce of Kitchen Flavours.

3 comments:

kitchen flavours said...

Wow, another delicious dish from you! Since I love rojak so much, I would definitely like eating this as well!
Thanks for sharing!

Gee® said...

wow! marvelous..marvelous!!

WendyinKK said...

my first taste of pecal was 8 years ago and I loved it!

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