En Papillote de tofu champignon (pepes jamur)

By October 18, 2014 Recipes No Comments
spices

Hello! Welcome back to my blog. My random blog. It can be anything from a #randomthingsinmyhead story to a recipe post like what I’m gonna do now!
Yes, i was trained as a rawfood vegan chef, but that doesn’t mean i can’t cook! Ha! Lately, I’m actually practicing my cooking skills again, to not get rusty. Yes, i do still eat rawfoods.

Enough questions.. Let’s start!

So PEPES is basically something we cook in banana leaf, in a steamer. It varies from fish, chicken, lamb, even sweet rice flour cake, although the cakes, we don’t called pepes. They have their own respective names. And today, I am sharing with you my tofuShroom pepes. Yes, totally safe for all you GF and vegan fans in case you were about to pop the question!

A good cook knows that preparation is KEY! So mise en place is a MUST.

So you can see this is my mise en place so you don’t create panic on the dancefloor… You will need:

  • 2 cups mashed tofu(just mash with your hands)
  • 1,5 cups small diced mushrooms( i used shitake, you can use what you like)
  • 1/2 cup of chopped spring onions( daun bawang in Indonesian)
  • 1/2 cup of chopped leek ( i used the indonesian “kucai”)
  • 1/2 cup thai basil or “kemangi”
  • 1/4 cup of chopped parsley and cilantro
  • 1/4 cup small diced tomatoes
  • 1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper
  • 2 tbsp chopped garlic
  • 2 tbsp ground black pepper
  • 1 tbsp paprika powder
  • 1 tbsp coriander powder
  • 1 tbsp grated fresh turmeric
  • 5 tbsp Tamari or you can use Braggs amino acid ( Tamari is just a GF and low sodium version of it– ini pengganti kecap asinku krn rendah sodium ya)
  • Himalayan salt or sea salt to taste
  • 1 tbspn virgin coconut oil
  • 1/2 tbspn toasted sesame oil
  • 1/4-1/2 cup water

First, let us sweat the garlic,mushrooms,leek,spring onions, tomatoes. Sweating is a method in cooking that helps you build your base flavour of the whole dish. How?

1.Pour the coconut oil into pan on low heat, put in garlic and just stir every now and then until they are softened.

After they are softened, add in 1/4 cup of water then put in the rest of the accompaniments i listed above to sweat. It will look something like this

Keep stiring in low heat. This is the base of our flavor so pay attention to it, because it will be the foundation of the whole Pepes. In chef lingo the fancy name for this is mirepoix … Ahh je parle français! Hahaha!

Towards the end, when all ingredients are soft, I added in the tamarigroundpepperpaprika powder coriander powder, and stirred for a bit, then i turned heat off, and poured it into my bowl of mashed tofu.

2. Stir the mirepoix well into the mashed tofu, adding the grated turmeric, and bell peppers, thai basil,parsley and cilantro and toasted sesame oil. Make sure it is evenly mixed and test taste. If it is not salty enough for you, here is where you add in a bit of salt.

While I was doing this, I remembered i had some bittergourd left and I absolutely love it. So I halved the tofu batch and made 1 batch with bittergourd and chopped chilli, 1 without for my kids. This is TOTALLY YOUR CHOICE

3. NOW, the fun part! Wrapping it.. After you have wiped clean( i washed mine .. Germ freak haha ) your banana leaves, cut them into rectangles around the size of 18x14cm or around 8×5 inches ( i hope i got my metrics right hahah..) OR you can just cut to what you need. It should be able to contain a 1/4 cup batch of tofushroom, so improvise  ( i’m such a newbie at this blog recipe writing thingy, sowwwyyy)

4. Double layer the banana leaf just in case it tears and put 1/4 cup tofushroom mix on it and now we wrap and secure with toothpicks! Like so:

At this point your mix will kinda look like a doggie bowl ,but worry not, it’s gonna be so delicious at the end, i promise

DISCLAIMER: these are not my hands .. Let me introduce you to this amazing calm woman who helps me around the house, she’s in her 50s and so pleasant. Even the way she ended up working with us, was beautiful. She just showed up at my door. I kid you NOT. Hahah. That’s another blogpost, i will tell you one day, but here she is, 1,5 yrs later, you can call her “bibik”…. Lovely woman. I love her.

5. While your are doing your wrapping, heat the water for steaming. When all is ready, place wraps in the steaming basket first, and then put the basket on top of the pot of boiling water, this is the safest way so you do not burn yourself from the steam coming from the pot below.

6. Steam around 15-20 minutes ( depends on the air flow space you have in you basket, do not over fill) . You know they are done when the banana leaves wilt a bit like this:

And now.. VOILA!

You can enjoy as is, or eat as a filling on a romaine leaf with some steamed carrots like i did! Or have some rice, like my family did.

Now, go make it, and tag me on my instagram @sophienavita !
Also.. If you haven’t seen it yet, here’s a link to my YOUTUBE  http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gJO1GR9qebA where i made a simple green pinacolada smoothie ! I know, it’s been a long time since i put in a new video, but it will come, i promise!
Bon Appetit and don’t forget to cook with love! Tag me! Bye for now!

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