Pepes Tahu ~ The Lazy Way

I had a sudden craving of pepes tahu. For those non-Indo people, pepes is something like the lor mai kai dish, but instead of glutenous rice, it's either tofu, mushroom, or even fish and condiments, all wrapped with banana leaves. It's one of my fave Indo dish, but I never thought of making it myself because of the ingredients (you won't have problems if you live in Indo). Google 'pepes tahu' and you found tons of recipes with all different combinations of those ingredients, from the mega simple one (here) or the more complicated one (here).

The must have items in pepes are daun salam, lemongrass, and kemiri. OK, lemongrass is not that hard to find but there's no way I'm gonna search high and low for daun salam and kemiri, let alone pay the ridiculous price for those items. But... I still want my pepes :p. Hence, it's modification time. I still retain the essence of the making process, BUT, I sub all the ingredients with the easier to find and not necessarily cheap but it's all in my pantry. And, the taste? it's not that much different from the ones that I used to eat, only it tastes cleaner LOL...

Ingredients:

500gr tofu - using spoon crush it. I like it to still have some big chunks

3 red chilies - seeded and thinly sliced

3 green chilies - seeded and thinly sliced

2 eggs

1 bunch Thai basil leaves - plugged w/o stems and this is the sub for daun salam

1 tomato -- seeded and thinly sliced

2 tsp salt

Condiments:

1 whole garlic (about 10 cloves)

1 medium sized red onion - you can cut all those small shallots, but I don't like peeling those tiny shallots, waste energy

10 gr macadamia - this is the sub for kemiri, fancy eh?

1 red chili - seeded

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp sugar

For wrapping - baking paper or aluminum foil (they're cheaper than banana leaves and can do the job)

How to:

1. In your food processor, add in all the condiment ingredients and grind them until it turns to a paste. If you have the energy (which I don't), you can use that old fashion stone bowl and pound them. The difference between the 2 method is that by using food processor, your condiment will be more watery compared to the traditional way. BUT, why would you want to waste your energy if you can squeeze the water out a bit and use OR, just bake ur pepes a little bit longer?

2. Mix in both condiments and all ingredients except basil leaves and tomato in a big bowl until well mixed.

3. To assemble: On cut baking paper, place basil leaves on the bottom then add the tomato slices and top it up with about 100 gr of the tofu mixture and wrap it tight. I'm lazy so I make jumbo (about 200gr each) size ones.

4. Bake it for 45minutes at about 160C. They look like below when they're done:

*I staple the sides using yeah, the regular stapler. It's a legit item in the kitchen, you won't eat them anyway.

Enjoy!