Nasi Pecel

- Indonesian Tempeh and Tofu with a Spicy Peanut Sauce and Rice - 

Nasi Pecel is one of my Indonesian favourite dishes, and it turns out, it's one of my sister's favourites, too. She came home for Christmas last year, and a few times she asked whether we could have tempeh with spicy peanut sauce, because she remembered it from the last time I had made it here, which was a few years ago now. 

Although I love this dish, I had had trouble finding tempeh lately, and (even now) I cannot easily find the pre-fried spongey tofu that should ideally be used in this dish. Nonetheless, we were able to finally make this dish, Nasi Pecel in Indonesian, a week or two after Christmas once I was able to find tempeh, and a pre-fried tofu which wasn't the authentic one, but made do.

The two lengthier processes in preparing this dish are making the homemade spicy peanut sauce, and deep frying the tempeh, tofu and kerupuk. I also made some homemade sambal tomat to go with it, using the remaining Thai chilies I had bought. Nasi Pecel is nice with deep fried peanuts as well, but luckily many of the Asian grocery stores sell locally fried peanuts. 

Spicy Peanut Sauce 

(Makes enough for 2-3 servings)

Ingredients:

• 3 tbsp canola oil, for frying (drain this out after frying)
• 2 fresh kaffir lime leaves
• 5-6 red thai chilies, sliced lengthwise (it will be quite spicy)
• 2-3 tbsp raw sugar, jaggery, or dark brown sugar
• 3 small shallots, diced, or 1/2 of a small onion, diced
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 1 tsp terasi (fermented shrimp paste), dissolved in 2 tbsp hot water
• 1/3 cup fried, ground peanuts, or 1/3 cup natural, unsweetened peanut butter

Directions:

1. Fry the chilies, shallots (or onion) and garlic with 2 fresh kaffir lime leaves in 3 tbsp of tasteless oil until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes
2. Remove them from the pan and discard the oil (you can use it for making tomato sambal later if you choose to)
3. Remove the lime leaf and set aside until later
4. Using either a mortar and pestle or a food processor, blend the softened chilies, shallots and garlic. Do not blend the lime leaf in this mixture
5. Add the sugar and the terasi-and-water mixture, and blend well
6. If using a mortar and pestle up until this point, you can now move the mixture to a bowl and mix in the unsweetened natural peanut butter, and kaffir lime leaves. 
7. At this point, the peanut sauce can be put in the fridge or freezer if you are not using it right away.
8. When ready to use, mix in 3 tbsp or more of boiling water to thin out the sauce to your desired consistency.

Note: The kaffir lime leaves add an extra citrusy note to the sauce, especially if you make it ahead of time and leave them in the container with the peanut mixture to infuse. If you do not leave them in to infuse, they will probably not add much to the sauce, and can even be skipped altogether. If you have them, though, they are good to use. Also, if you are making sambal tomat at the same time, you can just fry the leaves in the first step of this recipe, remove them and save them to then fry in the sambal tomat after.