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Acar Kuning - Pickled Vegetables in Peanut Chili Sauce
Unlike your typical acar, this acar kuning is more like a side dish rather than a condiment or relish. This dish is actually pretty filling, and if you are a vegetarian, a solid meal can be had with just this and a bowl of steamed white rice. You can use other vegetables not specified in the recipe, just make sure that they all need about the same cooking time to reach the same level of crisp and crunch, yet still tender and totally cooked. In fact, it wouldn’t be too far fetch to use the sauce as a salad dressing when you prepare your next salad. ♥
Acar Kuning - Pickled Vegetables in Peanut Chili Sauce
Ingredients
- 250 gram carrot, peeled
- 250 gram young small corn (Indonesian: jagung muda)
- 250 gram green bean (Indonesian: buncis)
- 250 gram cucumber (Indonesian: peeled and seeded)
- 6 tablespoon oil
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 6 tablespoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon vinegar
- 2 cup water
- 200 gram peanut, deep fried and ground
- Spice paste
- 10 red chilies (Indonesian: cabe merah keriting)
- 5 candlenuts (Indonesian: kemiri)
Instructions
- Cut carrot, corn, green bean, and cucumber into roughly the same bite size pieces.
- Place cucumber in a bowl and sprinkle with 1 tablespoon each of sugar and salt. Set aside for 15 minutes, squeeze the liquid, set aside.
- Heat oil in a wok on high heat and saute spice paste until fragrant and oil looks separated at the edges, about 5 minutes.
- Add all the vegetables and toss to mix well.
- Season with salt and sugar and mix well.
- Add the vinegar and pour the water. Bring to a boil and cook for another 5 to 7 minutes.
- Add ground peanut into the wok and stir. The peanut will absorb all the liquid and the end result should not be watery. Turn off heat and serve immediately or at room temperature.
Notes
- The prep time and cook time includes time to deep fry your own peanut. If you buy packaged fried/roasted peanut, you should be able to save roughly 10 minutes of deep frying.
Comments
I made some changes to the recipe, so I'm not sure if the result was adequate, but it was really delicious. I wanted an Indonesian-style veggie side to go with some meatier dishes, so I didn't want one with more protein like egg or tofu, while using vegetables I had on hand.
I halved the recipe, and used just canned baby corns and green beans (from frozen), with dried chilies. I think canned/frozen vegetables retain water, so it took a little longer for the liquid to dry up. Maybe this made the dish a bit over-cooked, and more like a saute than acar, but I'm not sure hahaha. My dried chilis also cooked fast, so I think I burned out most of their spice. Since I didn't use cucumbers, I also wasn't sure how to adjust the salt and sugar.
Well... whatever I made was really good: sort of sweet and tangy with a nice texture from the peanuts. I can't quite think of anything similar... a very distinct dish, but also easy with familiar flavors and ingredients. I hope I can try again and stick closer to the recipe, but if not... I know I'll still gobble it up :9
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