Rujak Manis ( Indonesian Fresh Fruit Salad )

I LOVE THIS FRUIT SALAD !! Rujak Manis , is my favourite mid afternoon snack back when i was younger . During those hot summer days , we usually made the time to stop by at this particular street vendor on our way home from school , and stopped by and bought the fruit salad , along with their fresh young coconut drink . It was so yummy and refreshing , the sweet , sour and spicy dipping sauce with fresh fruits . We usually use any kind of fruits we like , the most common fruits we use are , pineapple , apples , papaya ( not the ripe one , they usually still tough ) , and mango ( again , not the yellow ripe mango , we call them young mango , super sour ) , star fruits , guava , and also cucumber , fried tofu . The street vendor usually would prepare the sauce first for you , they would ask if you want it spicy or not , and if you do , he would add ground chilis , i believe they use bird eye’s chili , and then add ground peanuts ,and the palm sugar , tamarind , and little water . And he would add just little of fried garlic , and that’s about it .. it’s super easy and yummy !!

So , this is my first attempt to make rujak manis on my own , it has been years and years since i had this salad , and i am so glad i finally found tamarind at the local market , without it , i wouldn’t be able to make it of course .

You need to slice your fruits , and store it in the fridge while you make the sauce :

pineapple , starfuits , apples , mangoes , papaya , jicama , guava , cucumber , etc .. any kind , if you just have pineapple and apples , mangoes , that’s fine too .. but the more the merrier .

For the sauce :

100 grams of roasted peanuts ( buy raw peanuts and roast it on the skillet yourself , if you buy roasted peanut from the store, usually they’re already salted , you don’t want this one ) Once it’s turn golden brown , put it in the food processor , and pulse it’s chopped smoothly .

100 grams palm sugar , grated

2-3 bird’s eye chilis

100 ml warm water

1/2 tsp. tamarind

1/2 tsp. of shrimp paste

little salt if you need it

Melt the sugar , water and tamarind in a small pot , let it cool , then pour the mixture into the ground peanut along with the bird’s eye chili . Sprinkle with crumbles fried garlic when you’re ready to serve it .