Acar is a favourite dish amongst many people. It is sweet, sour and spicy and, thus, can whet up one's appetite.
Making Acar involves a lot of work. Thus, it is better to divide the processes over 2 days.
Day 1:
- Preparing the sambal. It
depends on how much Acar you want to make. I will usually make a lot and
store them in boxes before freezing them up for later consumption. Please
refer to my Sambal post on how I make my sambal. For this recipe, I am
using all the ground chilli from my Sambal post i.e.
- 1 kg fresh red chilli
- 1/2 kg dried chilli
- 200 g bird's eye chilli
(chilli padi) (optional)
- 2 big onions
- 1 bulb garlic
- 1 1/2 inch shrimp paste
- Preparing the peanuts
(400g). I love putting a lot of peanuts in my Acar. However, not
necessarily at one go during cooking. I keep the ready ones in a bottle
and just sprinkle them on top of the Acar when I want to eat them.
- Wash and dry the peanuts.
- Toast them in the kuali
without any oil until they are brown and fragrant.
- Remove the membrane.
- Let the peanuts cool down
completely.
- Grind or pound them
coarsely; I want to be able to chew them with the vegetables and sesame
seeds. I also want to taste and smell the fragrance of the peanuts while eating
the Acar.
- Store the ground peanuts in
an air-tight container for later use.
- Preparing the sesame seeds
(200 g)
- Wash and dry the sesame.
- Toast them in the kuali
without any oil until they are brown.
- Remove them from the kuali
and let them cool down completely.
- Store them in an air-tight
container.
Day 2
- Preparing the vegetables:
- Preparing the cucumbers
- Wash 4 big cucumbers (more
if you prefer over other vegetables).
- Cut the cucumbers
lengthwise into 4.
- Remove the seeds.
- Cut cucumbers into small 1
inch x 0.3 inch x 0.3 inch rectangular blocks.
- Put the cut cucumbers in
batches into a muslin cloth and squeeze out as much water as possible.
The more water you squeeze out from the cucumber, the crunchier they
would be.
- Set aside
- Preparing the carrots
- Peel and wash 2 or more
big carrots.
- Cut the carrots into sizes
like those of the cucumbers.
- Boil a pot of water.
- When the water is boiling
pour a capful of vinegar into it.
- Put the carrots into the
boiling water.
- Blanch them for 3-4
minutes. (We do not want the carrots to be soft.)
- Scoop up and set aside.
- Preparing the cabbage
- Peel and wash 4 or more
leaves of cabbage.
- Cut the cabbage leaves
into the length of the cucumbers and carrots and width of about 2
inches.
- Top up the water used to
blanch the carrots.
- When the water is boiling
pour a capful of vinegar into it.
- Put the cabbage into the
boiling water.
- Blanch them for 5 minutes
or longer (if you prefer soft cabbage).
- Scoop up and set aside.
- Preparing the long beans
- Wash the 4-5 strings of
long beans.
- Cut them according to the
length of cucumber and carrots.
- Top up the water used to
blanch the carrots and cabbage.
- When the water is boiling
pour a capful of vinegar into it.
- Put the long beans into
the boiling water.
- Blanch them for 3-4
minutes or longer (if you prefer the long beans to be softer).
- Scoop up and set aside.
- Assembling all the
vegetables.
- Heat up some oil in a wok.
- Scoop the prepared sambal
into the wok and saute it until it is fragrant.
- Once the sambal is
fragrant, add in salt and sugar (both according to individual taste).
- Pour in rice vinegar and
let it boil.
- Once it has boiled, turn
off the fire.
- Add in the cucumber,
carrot, cabbage and long beans and mix them up well.
- Sprinkle the ground peanuts
and toasted sesame.
- The Acar is ready.
- Let the Acar cool down completely before storing them into containers and freezing them.