Traditionally, pepes will be wrapped in banana leaf , cooked on steam in boiled water or grilled on charcoal. This cooking technique allows the rich spices mixture to be compressed and give rich aroma

Prepare tofu and get rid of the excess water with paper towel. Put aside

Peel the prawns and cut it into smaller pieces.

Thinly slice the button mushroom

Get rid of the chili stems and wash the chilis in running water. Cut the chilis into small slices

Mash the tofu with fork, do not mash it till too soft and stop mashing when the big lumps of tofu are gone.

Grind candlenuts, garlic and shallots and corriander seeds in a mortar pestle to paste or grind with food processor. Add a little bit of salt.

Mix in a bowl mashed tofu, egg, prawn, mushroom, add salt, sugar, pepper,chicken powder and turmeric powder to taste.

Mix all the ingredients .. And last but not least, add the sliced chilies.

Take a piece of aluminium foil, place 1 dry bay leaf in the middle of the aluminium foil.

Place the mixture on top of the bay leaf and wrap it firmly so that the liquid will not penetrate through.

Prepare steamer and steam the pepes for 30 mins.

Open up the foil and pepes tahu is ready to be served ! Best enjoyed with steam rice.

If I can cook it .. You can too !

I skip the coconut milk for this recipe to create healthier dish! But you may try using coconut milk to enhance the richness of spices and of course it will make the pepes yummy-er 😋.

How to cook healthy pepes tahu (indonesian steamed tofu)

Pepes is an Indonesian cooking method using banana leaf as food wrappings. It is not easy to find banana leaf here, so I substitude it with aluminium foil.