Hot Potato Salads for Winter

My reissued little book, Beans, Rice, and Pastas, is available at Suzanna Leigh’s studio this weekend and next. The studio is called HiLaDi, Number 29 on the Studio Tour Map. The name is Kwakiutl and means something like "everything just as it should be."

Beans, Rice, and Pastas offers recipes from all over the world, including old American favorites such as Boston Baked Beans, and ranging as far afield as East Asia. If you miss it on the Studio Tour, look for it later at Minglement.

Some pages of the little book, originally published 30 years ago, as a consciousness-raiser for the food bank have been slightly revised to update them to this century’s art of cooking, For instance, it includes a way to make gluten free tortillas.

Under the heading of "beans" I include the other legumes peas and peanuts. Here is a sample recipe for a high-protein salad you can enjoy hot in the winter, cold in the summer. Gado gado means "peanuts." If the shell contained only one nut, it would be a "gado".

Amounts of ingredients are up to you after considering how many people you’ll be serving it to and how hungry they may be.

JAVANESE POTATO SALAD
(Gado Gado)
Sliced Boiled Potatoes
2-inch Cucumber Sticks
Bean Sprouts, blanched 3 seconds
Cooked Green Beans
Chinese Cabbage, lightly cooked
Red Bell Pepper Strips
Tofu Cubes, well scalded
Boiled Eggs, halved or sliced
Gado Gado Sauce
Arrange the vegetables on a platter by sections

Place the tofu cubes in the center. Garnish with eggs.

Let each diner compose his or her own salad. Pass the Gado Gado Sauce to spoon over it.

Or compose a salad dish with the Chinese cabbage on the bottom and the other ingredients artistically arranged on it. Ladle the sauce over the salad. Garnish with egg halves or slices.

GADO GADO SAUCE
(Peanut Sauce)
1 (13.66-ounce) can Coconut Milk
or 1 ½ to 2 cups boiling Water
¼ cup Dried Coconut Shreds
1 Onion, minced. Stir-fry 5 minutes in
2 Tablespoons Vegetable Oil
1/8 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper or
A sprinkle of Dried Red Peppers or
½ to 1 red or green fresh Chili Pepper, frozen
And then grated into the sauce
2 Tablespoons Lemon Juice

Stir-cook all the ingredients on medium-low head until the sauce thickens and no longer tastes raw, adding water as needed. Remove sauce from the heat and stir in lemon juice.