Vegetables Salad with Coconut Dressing
Origin: Middle of Java Island
Ingredients
- 150 g long bean /French bean, cut into 4 cm length
- 200 g green leafy vegetables (waterspinachspinach/cassava leaves/papaya leaves, etc), sliced
- 100 g beansprouts, the brown-ends discarded
- 2 pc carrots, cut in julien strips
- 300 g grated fresh coconut or 150 gr desiccated coconut as a substitute
- 150 ml thick coconut milk (if desiccated coconut is used)
- aluminium foil
Spice for the coconut dressing
- 3 pc large red chillis de-seeded, chopped
- 5 pc small red chillies / bird chillies (if preferred)
- 2 gloves garlic, chopped
- 1 sdm brown / palm sugar
- 2 cm kencur (lesser Galangale) or 1/2 tsp kencur powder/dried kencur
- 3 pc kaffir lime, discard ribs of the leaf, sliced
- ½ tsp roasted dried shrimp paste / terasi (optional)
- ½ tsp tamarind pulp soaked in 1 tbsp water (if preferred)
- 1 tsp salt or to taste
Vegetables Salad with Coconut Dressing
This dish is listed as one of "30 Indonesian Culinary Icons". Urap-Urap is usually served as one of complementary menu for Nasi Tumpeng. Nasi Tumpeng is a cone-shaped rice dish like mountain with its side dishes in Javanese festive occasions. But you can also find this salad in everday menu of Indonesian family, especially in a village where the green leafy vegetables are available in their own garden. It is very easy to prepare & guaranteed healthy!!;-) Actually there is no absolute recipe for making Urap-Urap. Vegetables can be varied according to your taste and availability. My favorite is actually a combination between young papaya leaves and indonesian's marigold leaves or well known as kenikir. Unfortunately the two of them are not available anywhere in the west. So I just take & mix any vegetables that available here. For those of you who have a similar problem, please use your own idea 😉The important seasoning spice for Urap Urap are Kencur (Lesser Galangale) and kaffir lime leaves. So try your best to get them both, even if they are in dried or grounded package. Because without those two mentioned items, Urap-Urap will taste strange and not so authentic.Important Note: For those of you who live abroad where the fresh grated coconut is impossible to obtain, then you have to take desiccated coconut as a substitute. The problem is desiccated coconut contains no more coconut milk which required for the dressing. As a result, the coocnut dressing will be relatively dry & almost tasteless. But don't worry !! After many times of "try & error" experiments, I found a simple trick to overcome this problem, at least to minimize the damage ;-). Just add very thick coconut milk as I write on the recipe into the dressing. I assure you, the coconut dressing will be soft, moisted and more tasty. Good luck…Tipp: This trick can be applied for other recipes as long as fresh grated coconut is required. Just take the half amount of fresh grated coconut as described on the recipe + 1/2 amount of coconut milk. For example 300 gr fresh grated coconut = 150 gr desiccated coconut + 150 ml thick coconut milk.
Instructions
- For coconut dressing: Put the fresh grated coconut or desiccated coconut in a bowl.
- Put all ingredients for the paste in a blender & blend until smooth.
- Add the paste into the coconut bowl and stir to mix.
- Add the thick coconut milk, if desiccated coconut is used.
- Adjust the seasoning. Add salt & sugar to taste.
- Put in a heat proof bowl or plastic container.
- Steam over boiled water for about 20 minutes. Let it cool.
- For vegetables: Pour in enough water in a medium-size of saucepan with a pinch of salt. Bring to boil.
- Blanch the vegetables separately and set to drain in a colander.
- Attention: Boil the water spinach/coy sum/ spinach and beansprouts for about 1-2 minutes only to prevent overcooked.
- Serving Method: Arrange the blanched vegetables in a large serving plate. Add the coconut dressing & mix them throughly.
- Garnish with sweet basil & serve at room temperature.
Serving Method
- If necessary rinse the blanched vegetables under cold water so that the color does not change rapidly/blackish. (if the serving time to be delayed)
- You can also roast the coconut dressing instead steam it. Roasted coconut dressing will stay good until next day.
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