During my first marriage, my husband’s mother, Mrs. Van Halen, made amazing Indonesian meals. The one that stands out most—or rather, the one that’s lingered on my taste buds for more than three decades—is her Gado-Gado, a vegetable dish she served with a peanut sauce that literally stopped time.
I savored every molecule of its peanutty goodness. Years later, I served her peanut sauce with chicken satay, making for an easy appetizer with bold flavor. She never shared her exact recipe, but I’ve re-created it as best I can—and I think I got very close.
It’s exotic but still approachable—and just might cause you to dance the night away. Haha, see what I did there?
Excerpted from Valerie’s Home Cooking by Valerie Bertinelli. Copyright © 2017 Oxmoor House. Reprinted with permission from Time Inc. Books, a division of TimeInc. New York, NY. All rights reserved.