Sometime back I got a really thoughtful package from Kynne. Inside the box was a number of Asian food. One of the things inside was a pack of peanut sauce. I wasn’t sure what to do with it, until I thought of making gado-gado.
The picture probably doesn’t look very appetizing. But believe me, it’s really tasty.
Gado-gado is an Indonesian dish mainly made of vegetables mixed with the peanut sauce. It’s quite easy to get the ingredients here such as eggs, cucumber and cabbage. Even Tempeh and Kangkung are easy to find.
But interestingly one of the ingredients, the bean sprouts, which is really cheap in Asia, can be quite expensive here. The only shop where I found it for sale costs about 3.50 euros for a small box. It may be organic and all, but I thought it was just too much.
So in the end, I thought that it would be much more satisfying to grow it myself. After searching a few supermarkets, we found a pack of “Fagioli Azuki” beans from Panorama and I got ready to grow it.
It feels like I was doing a Primary 3 science experiment all over again and it’s really easy to do.
- Take a plastic container and line it with a wet tissue paper
- Sprinkle the seeds inside and leave it in a warm place
- In a few days the sprouts will be ready .
It was quite therapeutic to see the sprouts grow bit by bit each day. As soon as the leaves come out it was ready for harvest. So it’s time to pull them out for a rinse and cleaning.
And as sit down and clip the roots away, the familiar scent and rote reminds me a bit of how my sister, my mum and I would be doing the same thing together back in Singapore before we start cooking for a meal.
There was something comforting in the thought.
What a brilliant idea you have! I’m gonna grow my own taugeh too! I love them! I remember growing up in Singapore, I could buy them for 20 cents and it can feed 2 as a side dish! Thank you thank you thank you for the brilliant idea! 🙂
I hope you have fun growing them Anna, I can’t believe we didn’t think of this sooner. It’s so easy! 🙂