Tahu Pong from East-Java
Tahu Pong
Tahu Pong; that sounds fun! This tofu dish from East Java is completely different from the fried fermented bean curd I’ve made last week (I suddenly have a bean curd addiction 😉 from Central Java.
This tahu dish from East Java is covered in a sweet-sour sauce and topped with a hard-boiled egg. I say: the perfect vegetarian dish for warm weather.
Tahu from East Java (Tahu Pong) # 355 translated from Beb Vuyk’s Groot Indonesisch Kookboek, page 294.
Ingredients
- 1/2 block of tofu
- 2 hard-boiled eggs
- 8 tablespoons of oil
- 2 tablespoons of vinegar
Herbs
- 3 shredded cloves of garlic
- 1 teaspoon sambal ulek
- 3 tablespoons sweet soy sauce
- salt
- Cut the bean curd into cubes of ± 2 1/2 cm and fry them in the oil.
- Peel the eggs.
- Rub the garlic with the sambal and a little salt together to make a paste.
- Mix in the vinegar and the soy sauce to make a sauce.
- Place the pieces of tahu on a dish, decorate them with slices of egg and pour the sauce over them.
Tahu Pong Ingredienten
I do not have fresh chilies anymore, but I have just made sambal with very spicy rawit. I therefore use only half a teaspoon.
Fry
I cut the tofu into cubes and fry them in two or three batches. It takes some time to get color on the tofu; let them bubble for a few minutes until they are golden brown and crisp.
Sauce
In the meantime I make the sauce.
Garlic turns into a paste easily in the mortar. A little bit of salt makes it grind even faster.
The soy sauce and the vinegar can be added now. It may seem like a lot of vinegar, but that makes this recipe really tasty. This sauce must be sweet and sour. I use a good quality vinegar for this. For example wine or rice vinegar.
I have fried and drained the tofu on a kitchen towel and I’ve placed it on a plate. The sliced eggs go on top and I pour over the delicious sauce. I leave it like this for about 15 minutes. It has the time to suck up all those lovely sweet and sour flavors.
We eat this tahu pong with a boiled potato. I still had a few left from another dinner.
My husband is allergic to potato so I made udon noodles too (a somewhat thicker Japanese noodle). Because the tahu pong is pretty ‘wet’ because of the sauce, all the noodles are covered quickly and is therefore delicious.
I love the sweet and sour flavor of this tahu pong; it’s so typical Indonesian! Selamat Makan.
