Petjil - Pitjel - Petjel

Petjil - Pitjel - Petjel

This Javanese dish is super easy! We sometimes have petjil when we barbecue instead of a salad.

Petjil

What do we need:

Peanut sauce

This is for about 4 persons.
- 250gr Long beans (cut in pieces of 3,5cm)
- 250gr Bean sprouts
- 250gr Cabbage, cut in 2cm wide strips (the one I use is also known as pointed, hispi, hearted or sweetheart cabbage)
- salt
- Peanutsauce (I use ready made from Suriname)



Equipment:
- one big pot
- a slotted ladle
- sauce pan


1. Bring one big pot with water (filled 3/4) to boiling point. Then lower to medium heat. Add a bit of salt to the water.

2. Blanche your long beans for about 5 to 6 min. and then check if the beans have the right bite.  I don't like it when my veggies are to soft. For me it has to have a bit of a bite. So it's  more what you prefer. If you like it softer then leave the veggies to cook a little longer.

3. Remove the long beans with the slotted ladle and put in cold water. When it's cooled, drain the vegetables.

4. Repeat step 2 and 3 for the beans sprouts and cabbage.  Note that the beans sprouts take only 1 or 2 min and the cabbage for about 3 to 4 min. 

Peanut sauce
For the peanut sauce you have to check the preparation on the package. For pitjel I like mine sauce to have thick consistency, not too runny.

If you can't get peanut sauce you can make it out of scratch. But I must say, I never make mine out of scratch. When I'm in Suriname, I stock up my peanut sauce :D! Once I didn't had peanut sauce, but I did had a pot of peanut butter. So I took a sauce pan, added some table spoons of Calvé peanut butter chunky, water, a bit of tamarind pulp (lemon will do too), kencur to taste (dry herb), garlic powder or fresh garlic, sugar/salt to taste and enough pepper (madame jeanette).

Out of scratch peanut sauce (Surinamese style)

- 2 teaspoons of oil
- 500 gr peanuts 
- 5 cloves of garlic
- madame jeanette or rawit/lombok /birds eye chilly (all the same peppers)
- kencur powder, 3 to 4 ts
- 1 tbsp tamarindpulp
- 3 tbsp brown sugar
- salt to taste

1. Fry the peanut in oil, add in the garlic and the peppers. Fry untill the peanuts are golden brown. 
2. Remove the peanuts and herbs with a slotted ladle. Leave to cool.
3. When cooled, put peanuts, garlic, peppers, kencur, tamarind pulp, brown sugar, salt to taste and mix in a food processor. 

You will have a thick paste, you now can dissolve it in a sauce pan with water to get the right consistency.

If you have tried it, let me know how it works out.. :)