Rujak with Young Mango

I don't think I'll ever stop loving or eating Indonesian food. And now that I'm in my house all the time with less going on than before, I think a lot about my favourite Indonesian foods: mie ayam, nasi padang, soto betawi, ketoprak, rendang, gulai, nasi uduk (which is my very favourite), gado gado, mie goreng, ondeh ondeh, es doger, siomay, pempek, and of course, rujak. In the last year at my school in Jakarta, a couple with a young son (just old enough that you wondered whether he should be at school) opened up an amazing rujak stall across the street from our school. They made the ultimate rujak: to the standard mix of the tangy, unripe fruit and crisp veggies, added sweet, juicy pineapple and ripe papaya, which was what did it for me. On an average day, a plate of rujak from them had a mixture of sour mango,  pineapple and papaya, water apple, kedongdong, cucumber, daikon, and occasionally raw sweet potato, sliced rather thin. This was all served with perfect sambal rujak: sweet, spicy chili-peanut sauce infused with the caramely flavour of gulah merah--natural Indonesian palm sugar. For months, I ate it almost every day. It was such a refreshing midday snack and the family selling it was so sweet. I know that the mix I always bought was the most expensive option, but even then, it cost less than 10,000 IDR ($1 Canadian). Well worth it.

Here, people often eat sour mango with a spicy salty masala, and though I really like that, too, I've been thinking of rujak a lot lately, so when I opened the box of mangoes I bought last week and realized that many weren't ripe yet, I immediately made a batch of sambal rujak.

It's such a simple thing to whip together, and actually can get you out of a pinch, if you (like me) occasionally slice into a mango only to find it's still sour. Now, days later, I have only one mango left in my box, and it is orange and sweet, and I'm sad that it's gonna be too sweet to eat with sambal rujak when I have it tomorrow.  Luckily I've been eating rujak all week now. And it's still mango season, so I can still buy another box in a day or two.

The flavour of rujak comes from good quality palm sugar (or other raw, natural, dark sugar) as well as some toasted peanuts, and a few spicy, fresh chilis. It is by definition a hot sauce (sambal), so not for the faint of heart. But if you are not sure whether you're up for this much heat in a fruit salad, you can adjust the chilis as you like. Just know that even if you ask for a "sedang" (medium) or "engga pedas" (not spicy) rujak in Indonesia, you'll still end up with at least one hot chili in your sambal rujak, and it'll still have a pretty sharp kick. That's half of what's addictive about this fruit salad, the flavours are intense, but you will find yourself unable to get enough.

Rujak (Spicy Indonesian Fruit Salad)

Ingredients:

• For the Sambal Rujak
• 1/4 cup gulah merah, jaggery, or other raw sugar
• 1-2 green chilies
• 2-3 tbsp toasted peanuts
• 1 tsp tamarind paste or fresh tamarind pulp
• pinch of salt
• For the Fruit Salad
• Assorted sour or unripe fruit (unripe mango, unripe papaya, pineapple, water apple, apple and/or kedongdong)
• If you have any of the following vegetables (cucumber, daikon, sweet potato) thinly sliced

Directions

1. Put the ingredients for the sambal rujak in a magic bullet, or small blender. Blend until smooth. OR grind with a mortar and pestle until you have a smooth paste.
2. Serve with sliced sour fruit and cucumber (any fruit and veggies listed above). This week I was eating my sambal rujak with just sour mango and cucumber, and it was amazing.

Enjoy!