Tofu balls

Less meat is better for the environment and less red meat is better for your body. This new knowledge makes me want to try more tofu and tempeh dishes.

Beb Vuyk (I make all her recipes from her famous Dutch Indonesian cook book) has many vegetarian recipes in her book. She also made a vegetarian cookbook. So when I finish the dishes without meat or fish from her book, I continue with her pure vegetarian work ;-).

Tofu balls # 344 translated from Beb Vuyk’s Groot Indonesisch kookboek, page 286

Ingredients

1/2 block tofu
2 eggs
1 medium, sliced leek
8 tablespoons of oil

Herbs

2 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon of finely chopped celery
pepper
salt
nutmeg

Boil the tofu in a little water with salt or broth. Crumble the tofu. Cut the leek into small pieces.

Mix the tofu, eggs, leek, garlic, celery, pepper, salt, and nutmeg.

Form walnut size balls and sauté them in the oil until they are golden brown and done. Serve them warm.

The ingredients are simple. I buy tofu at my local supermarket.

I add a full tablespoon of extra bread crumbs to make the tofu form balls easily. I will explain here.

I start cooking the tofu not in a broth but in water with a teaspoon of salt. I let the water come to the boil and simmer for 2 minutes.

Beb seldom let you know how much pepper, salt or nutmeg goes into her dishes. I add a teaspoon of pepper and a teaspoon of salt.

And a teaspoon of nutmeg.

Then the eggs, clove of garlic, leek and celery go through the crumbled tofu.

I mix everything together and try to form balls. But it does not work. The tofu does not stick together and the balls fall apart. It seems like something is missing.

I decide to add a full tablespoon of bread crumble and that seems to work fantastically. The picture above shows you the difference. The smoother balls are made with the extra bread crumble and stay in perfect shape.

After about 15 minutes they get this nice golden brown crust. I taste one, but I think they need something extra.

That’s why I pour two big tablespoons of sweet soy sauce (ketjap ABC) over them. The tofu sucks up all the ketjap and gives the balls a lot of additional flavor. Delicious! My guests who come over for a snack tonight like it a lot ;-).