Gado Gado, or the Miracle of Peanut Sauce

The recipe for Mollie Katzen's peanut sauce must have been whispered directly into her ear by a divine messenger. It is utterly delicious. If you want it, you will have to look it up in her "Gado Gado" recipe in the New Moosewood Cookbook. Anyway, you can drizzle it on any savory entree and it will undergo a sea change into something rich and…tasty.

Tonight we ate our third iteration of the gado gado George had cooked Monday night, but this time we didn't make turmeric rice. After George had made the beautifully yellow turmeric rice on Monday, our rice cooker had turmeric juice all over it, and by the time dinner had ended, the juice had turned into sun-yellow sludge. I don't know if you're aware of turmeric's magical qualities, but I bet a regular bottle of tumeric could turn my entire house a nice shade of lemon yellow—permanently. So I scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed. But the turmeric reacted with both the metal and plastic of the rice cooker and now parts of it are definitely yellow for good. Sigh.

George and I love gado gado, and we both highly recommend it to you, anonymous strangers, but beware the turmeric! I will give you a recipe without turmeric:

Gado Gado

Fluffy hot basmati rice (or rice of your choice)
Steamed broccoli or green beans
Red cabbage, thinly sliced
Warmed cubes of drained tofu (you can stick them into the warm pot after steaming the broccoli)
Eggs, hardboiled and chopped (optional)
Brightly colored bell pepper, thinly sliced (optional)
Pineapple (optional)
Chopped handful cilantro
Lime wedges for squeezing on fresh juice (optional)
Optional other stuff
Peanut Sauce, preferably Mollie Katzen's

The most important component of gado gado is the presentation. You'll want a nice wide bowl or plate. First lay down the rice in a thin even layer. Now add a ring of broccoli/ green beans, then a smaller ring of the crunchy red cabbage. After that, opt for various optional options. End with the tofu cubes piled up attractively, possibly with chopped egged, a bunch of cilantro, and a squeeze of lime juice or hot spice. Luxuriously drizzle the peanut sauce over the whole concoction. Serve with dark chopsticks.

You can envision for yourself the combinatorial qualities in this dish. Experiment!