Lara Lee, author of Coconut & Sambal: Recipes From My Indonesian Kitchen and A Splash of Soy: Everyday Food From Asia, employs a simple but smart strategy to acquaint her child to spice: a gradual introduction over months to build up tolerance. Her advice for parents everywhere? Start with something familiar to stir a little heat into. Condiments like peanut butter, cream cheese, or mayo are great vehicles for a spoonful of sriracha or chili paste.
And a shining example of that is gado-gado—where sambal oelek is added to peanut butter to temper the heat. Gado-gado is one of Indonesia’s national dishes, found everywhere from food stalls, restaurants and family kitchens. This noodle-based version employs a combination of soy sauce and brown sugar as a substitute for kecap manis, a salty-sweet condiment often used to season the peanut sauce at the heart of the dish. It’s also delightfully adaptable. Lee suggests cauliflower in place of broccoli, green beans instead of carrots, or an equal quantity of cooked lo mein or other egg noodles for the rice noodles