Summer is here part two- time to make Gorgeous Gado - Gado

Jamie Oliver's Gorgeous Gado - Gado

Gorgeous what? I hear my faithful readers ask!

Well to be honest I had not heard of it, having never been to a Sudanese Cookery school!

But I found this wonderful recipe tucked away on page 90 of my lovely Christmas present from Miss A and it looked so easy to make and so healthy and attractive that I added it to my menu.

So where will you find the recipe?

For those who did not read my earlier blogs from this amazing recipe book ( shame on you) here is the back story:

The recipe comes from a great recipe book I received from my former work colleague, Miss Andrea for Christmas 2020 . As I had already sent my belongings ( including , by accident , all of my cookbooks ) to the Philippines this excellent recipe book has remained with me in Bahrain .

With this recipe book Jamie Oliver has tried to put the fun back into cooking with home made rich sauces and 2 - 3 hours preparation and cooking per dish, so each is a labour of love! I have always been a big Jamie Oliver fan and so I really enjoyed reading through the book and selecting dishes to cook. Jamie makes it all very simple with lots of pictures and clear instructions.

In another blog, where they review Jamie's Recipe book they say:

" In the introduction, Jamie describes the book as being the antithesis of his 15 and 30 minute meals. It’s designed to encourage slow, indulgent cooking; cooking for the love of cooking, not just eating. Though the eating to be had from Comfort Food looks pretty great too! The recipes are more involved than in many of his other books, and it’s kind of refreshing to go through a recipe book that isn’t full of shortcuts and time-saving tips.

Both the artworking and photography in the book are divine- David Loftus"( is the photographer)

Source: Cider with Rosie

Accessed 9.1.21

So here is the Recipe ...

This is what it should look like...

So get your ingredients ready and let's get started...

First you scrub clean 400 grams new potatoes and quarter them and the boil for 15 mins. Next hard boil 4 eggs for 10 mins and then fry 2.5 m cubes of Tofu in sesame oil for 15 mins and sprinkle with salt. As we still ( after 4 months in this flat) have only one electric ring working we had a long queue for the working ring!

Frying the Tofu cubes in the Sesame oil

Oh no, sorry Mr. G. , I feel a bit of Wikipedia coming on as not all our readers will be familiar with Tofu!

"Tofu, also known as bean curd, is a food prepared by coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into solid white blocks of varying softness; it can be silken, soft, firm, extra firm or super firm.

Beyond these broad textural categories, there are many varieties of tofu. It has a subtle flavor, so it can be used in savory and sweet dishes. It is often seasoned or marinated to suit the dish and its flavors, and due to its spongy texture it absorbs flavors well.^[1]

Nutritionally, tofu is low in calories, while containing a relatively large amount of protein. It is high in iron, and can have a high calcium or magnesium content depending on the coagulants (e.g. calcium chloride, calcium sulfate, magnesium sulfate) used in manufacturing.

Tofu originated in China and has been consumed within China for over 2,000 years. It is also a traditional component of the cuisines of Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand,^[2]^[3] and the Philippines.^[4] In modern Western cooking it is sometimes treated as a meat substitute."

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tofu ( accessed 20.6.21)

Back to the recipe!

Next take half a Chinese cabbage, cut it into 2 cm slices, place in a colander and slowly pour boiling water over it to "cook it". This was a whole new cooking experience for me , but my Thai friend , Bom, who helped with the preparation said they often use this method for Thai food. This method saves a saucepan, is great when you have only one electric ring, and it prevents cooking out the nutrients. To finish your salad quarter a handful of radishes and cut two ripe tomatoes into wedges, and slice half a cucumber. Jamie suggests using a crinkle cut knife , so if someone wants to buy me one as a house warming present that would be great. You put everything in a bowl when its cold and season from a height with a little salt.

My completed Gorgeous Gado- Gado salad

Next you make the delicious sauce by placing all the ingredients in a blender ( I just used a bowl and a fork to mix it all up) . For the sauce you need one peeled clove of Garlic, 50 g palm sugar (grated if necessary), 120 g of Crunchy peanut butter ( my favourite!) , 1-2 Fresh res chilies, the juice of two limes, 2 tablespoons of fish sauce, 1 Tablespoon of low salt soy sauce and 1 tablespoon of Tamarind Paste. When it's mixed it will look like this...

Taste it to ensure the acidity of the lime sings through and tweak with more if needed. You should also taste and adjust the seasoning.

Normally you would put the salad ingredients in a bowl and put the dressing on top but Jamie suggests, and I tried it and it worked well, that you smear the sauce around the side of a serving bowl like this....

There should be enough for 4 bowls. You can then delicately arrange the ingredients inside so everyone can see what they are getting and the love and care you have put into their food! They can then run their spoon around the bowl, pick up the sauce, and add their favourite salad ingredients. For me it was the egg and potato. The sauce was amazing - and by doing it this way ( see finished dish at the top of the blog) everyone gets to add as much or as little sauce to their taste.

I hope you enjoy your Gorgeous Gado-Gado salad as much as I did. As usual thanks to Miss Andrea for the book, Jamie for the recipes and David Loftus for the recipe photos. I made the dish, with help from Bom , and took the photos in Bahrain.

The British Kabayan will be back with more of Jamie's recipes soon.

Until then- Ingat Palagi, Kita kits and stay safe