Rujak Manis (Indonesia Fruit Salad with Spicy Peanut Sauce)

I love the authentic food that she makes, which she then beautifully styled and photographed them. Pepy, the blog owner and editor of Indonesia Eats is very talented and never fails to share mouth-watering recipes on her blog. Coming from her neighbouring country, Malaysia, there are many similarities in our cookings. Of course, there are also those that I learn as I read her blog on a regular basis. Today, I am tremendously happy to have Pepy on my blog, where she shares a dish that I love most, Rujak Manis (or Rojak, we called it in Malaysia). Let’s welcome Pepy!

This is my third guest post for Malaysian bloggers.  Leemei Tan is very talented food photographer that I?ve known; beautiful photos, recipes and travel notes. About a week ago, she sent an email and offered me to be her blog?s guest writer. Thank you for the offer!  I replied that I have rujak manis picture ready to post.  She gave me a freedom to choose what food and when I?m ready to do so.  There is no deadline and no pressure as she told me. She agreed with my choice.

Rujak Manis (or rujak buah in other parts of the country) is a fruit salad which is served with spicy peanut sauce.  This time I picked the Surabaya style rujak manis.  This rujak manis is one of many rujaks that I grew up with.  For Malaysian and Singaporean, rujak is pronounced as rojak. There are several versions of rujak in Indonesia. As a person who grew up in East  Java, I know rujak manis, rujak Madura, rujak cingur which have differences in sauce. Beside using many different tropical fruit, the Surabaya style rujak manis is added with slices of fried tofu.

Recipe: Rujak Manis (Indonesian Fruit Salad with Spicy Peanut sauce)

Recipe by Lia of Dapurgue

Ingredients:

pineapple, peeled and cut

sweet potato, peeled and sliced

green mango, peeled and sliced

starfruit, cut

jicama, peeled, sliced

rose apple, sliced

guava, sliced

fried tofu, sliced

Spicy Peanut Sauce for Rujak Manis

100 grams roasted/fried peanuts

250 grams coconut sugar, warmed up in a microwave for couple seconds to soften

3 tablespoons roasted/fried garlic

2 tablespoons of tamarind juice

bird eye’s chilies ( as many as you like)

1/4 teaspoon dried shrimp paste (terasi), roasted

salt as desired

water

Tamarind Juice:

5 seeds of tamarind

water

Method:

1. In a mortar, place bird eye’s chllies and grind.  Add terasi, salt and tamarind juice.

2. Add coconut sugar, add a small amount of water at time and increase until reach the desired consistency.

3. Add garlic and peanut, pound or grind until done (do not process the peanut to smooth, but some people might like the smoother version). If the sauce is too thick, add water.

4. Serve with sliced fruits.

Cook?s Note:

-       You can use a food processor to make the sauce.

-       I like using roasted garlic since it?s easy to grind.