Malaysian. Condiment. Served at Daun Pisang (#4).

Acar awak

Nyonya pickled vegetables

Acar awak is the Nyonya pickle: vegetables blanched in vinegar and folded into a fried spice paste with peanuts and sesame. It cuts through anything rich and coconutty.

Cucumber holds a lot of water, so you seed, salt, squeeze, and oven-dry it. That's my New York substitute for the sun-drying you'd do in Malaysia.

Season the paste harder than feels right, because the vegetables bleed water into it. Make more than you think you need; the paste can take 30 to 50 percent more vegetables.

Makes
Serves 12 as a condiment
Do ahead
Make it three days ahead, never the day you eat it. It keeps 1 to 2 weeks in the fridge.

Ingredients

Scale

Vegetables

  • 1 small (~150g)cucumber, seeded
  • 1–2 medium (~120g)carrots
  • ~100gcabbage
  • ~100gcauliflower florets
  • 6–8long beans
  • 8–10French or green beans
  • 2–3fresh red cayenne or Fresno chilies (not bird's eye)
  • 1–2fresh green cayenne or Fresno chilies

Rempah

  • 10large dried red chilies, soaked, seeded
  • 10shallots
  • 2garlic cloves
  • 2 cmfresh turmeric (or ½ tsp ground)
  • 2 cmgalangal
  • 2 stalkslemongrass
  • 3candlenuts or macadamia
  • 1.5 tspbottled shrimp paste in soya bean oil
  • 50gdried shrimp, soaked (optional, traditional)
  • 80 mlneutral oil

Blanching liquid

  • 400 mlwater
  • 250 mlwhite vinegar
  • 1.5 tbspsalt
  • 1.5 tbspsugar

Sauce seasoning

  • 50 mlwhite vinegar
  • 70gsugar
  • ½ tbspsalt

Garnish

  • 150groasted peanuts, coarsely pounded
  • 2 tbspsesame seeds, dry-toasted

Method

  1. Seed the cucumber completely and cut it into thin 3 cm strips.
  2. Rub the strips with 1 tbsp salt and leave them 1 hour.
  3. Wring them hard in a cloth.
  4. Spread on a tray and dry in a 200°F oven for 25 minutes.
  5. Boil the blanching liquid. Blanch one vegetable at a time and lift it out with a spider or slotted spoon: carrots 3 minutes, cauliflower 1 minute, long beans 1 minute, French beans 1 minute, cabbage 30 seconds, chilies 15 seconds. Skip the cucumbers.
  6. Drain, towel, and pat dry. Wet vegetables make soggy acar.
  7. Blend the rempah smooth with the oil.
  8. If using dried shrimp, sauté them first until fragrant.
  9. Fry the paste on medium, 15 to 25 minutes, until the oil separates.
  10. Add the vinegar, sugar, and salt. Taste it. It should be intensely salty, sweet, and sour, more than seems right.
  11. Bring to a brief boil, take it off the heat, and cool completely before it touches the vegetables.
  12. Fold the cooled paste through all the vegetables with half the peanuts and sesame.
  13. Pack into mason jars, stir as it cools, and refrigerate.
  14. Add the remaining peanuts and sesame on the day you eat it.

Notes

  • Take it out of the fridge 30 minutes before you eat.