Pecel javanais

Fry the peanuts

Heat the oil in a wok or pan over medium heat and fry the raw peanuts, stirring often, until golden brown and fragrant. Drain on paper towels and let cool completely; they turn crunchy as they cool, which is exactly what you want for the sauce.

• 3 tbsp vegetable oil
• 200 g raw peanuts

✅ C'est prêt quand : the peanuts are golden brown all over and smell toasted, not raw

Blanch the vegetables

Bring a pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Blanch each vegetable separately and briefly, starting with the long beans (about 2 minutes), then the cabbage (1 minute), then the bean sprouts and water spinach (30 seconds each, as they wilt fast). Lift each one out with a slotted spoon straight into a bowl of iced water, then drain well; this short shock keeps the vegetables bright, crisp-tender and stops them turning dull or mushy.

• 150 g long beans
• 100 g cabbage
• 150 g bean sprouts
• 150 g water spinach or spinach

✅ C'est prêt quand : each vegetable is just tender but still has some bite, and keeps its bright colour

Pound the chili paste

In a mortar and pestle (or a small blender with a splash of water), pound or blend the red chilies, bird's eye chilies, garlic, kencur and salt into a fairly smooth, fragrant paste. The kencur is what makes this taste like real pecel rather than an ordinary peanut sauce, so don't skip it.

• 5 red chilies
• 3 bird's eye chilies
• 3 cloves garlic
• 2 cm kencur
• 1/2 tsp salt

✅ C'est prêt quand : the paste is smooth with no large chunks and smells sharply aromatic

Make the peanut sauce

Add the cooled fried peanuts to the chili paste and pound or blend again until mostly smooth but still a little textured, not completely silky. Stir in the palm sugar, tamarind water and kaffir lime leaf, then add warm water a little at a time, stirring, until you have a thick, pourable sauce. Taste and balance it: it should hit spicy, sweet, salty and sour all at once, with none dominating.

• 200 g fried peanuts (from step 1)
• 60 g palm sugar
• 1 tbsp tamarind water
• 1 kaffir lime leaf
• 200 ml warm water

✅ C'est prêt quand : the sauce coats the back of a spoon thickly but drips off slowly

Arrange the salad

Arrange the blanched vegetables on a plate alongside the raw cucumber slices and scatter over the basil leaves. Keep the vegetables at room temperature rather than fridge-cold; pecel is traditionally served this way, and the flavours come through much better than chilled.

• 1 cucumber
• a small handful basil leaves

Dress and serve

Spoon the peanut sauce generously over the vegetables, scatter with crisp fried shallots and serve right away with krupuk crackers on the side. Pecel is best eaten within minutes of dressing, while the vegetables still have their crunch.

• to serve fried shallots
• to serve krupuk crackers