I guess how they said, mom always know you the best, is really true. Whenever my mom come and visit me in Sydney, she would bring a lot of snacks for me. Last month, to my surprise, she brought me another bag of pecel paste again. Well, she used to bring me one before (which I haven’t finished yet for almost 1 year now), and yet she bring another one without I’m requesting.
Well… nothing wrong with having extra bag of pecel paste in my fridge, it won’t go spoil. But, I do have a reason why I haven’t finished the old bag of pecel paste for almost 1 year now. I never really interested in Indonesia food. It’s just not my type of food. Don’t get me wrong, I love peanut sauce, but assorted vegetables with peanut sauce is a big NO NO.. Who wanna eat assorted vegetables when there are so much meat and seafood keep calling my name. Sorry Vegie, I’m not discriminating here, but I’m just not that into you. That’s why, my old bag of pecel never get used up as I only cook once or twice in this past 1 year. Yet, there is a new bag of pecel paste. How on earth am I going to finish it up?
And, suddenly, something amazing happens out of my prediction. My sudden craving of pecel peanut sauce come out of no where, and I eat so much of pecel that I never like before. I used up all of my old pecel paste, and almost used up 1/2 of the new pecel sauce. It’s like my mom could predict that I would want to eat it suddenly and she brought me the bag of pecel paste without my request. I’m totally amazed. Thank you, Mom…
I never a big fan of vegetables, but the baked tofu, fried tempeh, plain spinach and beans taste surprisingly delicious with the pecel peanut sauce. I love the peanut sauce so much that I’m basically licking it off the plate. I didn’t know pecel would taste so nice before. It totally add so much flavour to the plain vegetables.
While I’m making this pecel, I also make extra sauce to use as a dipping sauce for my satay. The pecel sauce which is based of peanut, would have similar taste with the peanut satay dipping sauce that I used to eat back in Medan. Check out my next post for my satay recipes. My mom was like, why you want to make satay by yourself when they sell it in restaurant. That’s true, call me crazy. But, I’m just too tired going from one restaurant to another, from Indonesian to Malaysian restaurant, to find a good satay place. None of restaurant here make satay as good as the one I had back in Medan. No wonder, they say Medan is the foodie heaven.
This pecel is so quick to make yourself, without spending so much time in the kitchen. I just bake tofu, fry tempeh, fry chips, boil spinach and beans. Toss it all together in the plate, and pour the peanut sauce on top. Well, my mom bought the pecel paste from Indonesia. I think they also sell the prepack paste in your local asian grocery store, although I couldn’t tell you the exact quality of it. If you have some time, you could also make it from scratch. IndoChine Kitchen, one of the local Medan blogger, make a nice pecel paste from scratch.
- 150g baked tofu
- 150g fry tempeh, slice thinly
- 1 cup chopped beans
- 2 cup spinach
- chips
- 1 cup pecel paste
- ¼ - ½ cup hot water
- In a small bowl, add pecel paste and ¼ cup of hot water. Leave it for 5 minutes before stirring.
- Stir until all combines and smooth. If you like it to be thinner, add more water. If it's too watery, add more pecel paste. Adjust according to your taste. I personally like my peanut sauce to be thick.
- Prepare and bake tofu for healthier version.
- If you don't want to bake tofu, you could also fry the tofu together with tempeh.
- Boil chopped beans and spinach until cooked, and drain
- Arrange all vegetables and chips in the plate.
- Pour peanut sauce on top and toss together