Home > Tahu Telor or Tahu Telur (Tofu Omelette with Sweet Spicy Peanut Sauce)

Tahu Telor or Tahu Telur (Tofu Omelette with Sweet Spicy Peanut Sauce)

Posting Date: 09/13/16

Tahu Telor or Tahu Telur (Tofu Omelette with Sweet Spicy Peanut Sauce) originated from East Java in Indonesia. It is street food. Tahu means tofu and telor or telur means egg. Tahu Telor or Tahu Telur is like an omelette with tofu in it. It is served with sweet spicy peanut sauce and topped with slices of cucumber and carrot, fried onions, and bean sprouts. You can adjust the spiciness of the sauce by the amount of chili pepper used. Instead of chili pepper, I use sambal oelek. It is sometimes difficult to find red chili peppers in my Asian stores and thus, I substitute it with sambal oelek. The brand I use is Huy Fong since they don't add shrimp paste or garlic to it and thus, I got the chili pepper I need without any other flavors I don't want. The sweetness of the sauce comes from sweet soy sauce. In addition to the sweet soy sauce and chili pepper, the sauce also uses shrimp paste or terasi. Make sure you cook or roast the shrimp paste or terasi prior to adding it to the sauce. If you are a vegetarian, you can skip shrimp paste. In Indonesian restaurants in US, this dish is considered as an appetizer and thus, I list it as an appetizer.

To fry the omelette, I use a mold so that each omelette has similar size and shape. If you don't have it, it is fine, too. I don't actually have a real mold. I used the canning jar ring as a mold and it worked great.

This dish serves for 4 people

Ingredients:

5 large eggs
1 tablespoon corn starch
1/4 teaspoon salt
pinch of pepper
1 8 oz firm tofu, diced into 1/2" cubes
1 green onion, sliced
Vegetable oil to fry egg
For sauce: 1/2 tablespoon vegetable oil
For sauce: 2 cloves of garlic, finely minced
For sauce: 1 tablespoon sambal oelek or to taste. I use Huy Fong brand for sambal oelek since they don't add shrimp paste or garlic to it and thus, I got the chili pepper I need without any other flavors I don't want.
For sauce: 1 tablespoon peanut butter
For sauce: 2 tablespoons sweet soy sauce or to taste
For sauce: pinch of salt or to taste
For sauce: 2 tablespoons hot water
For sauce: 1/4 teaspoon cooked shrimp paste or terasi or to taste. To make it vegetarian, skip this ingredient. If you use shrimp paste or terasi, make sure it is cooked or roasted prior to adding it to the sauce. Otherwise, you would be eating it raw.
2 cups bean sprouts, blanched
1/2 cucumber, peeled and diced
1 carrot, julienned
Optional: fried onions to taste

Methods:

Lightly beat the eggs. Add corn starch, salt, and pepper. Whisk the mixture until corn starch is dissolved. Add tofu and green onion. Stir in the mixture.
Turn on the stove to medium heat. Heat up some vegetable oil on a non-stick pan. Brush inside a mold lightly with vegetable oil so that the omelette will not stick to it. Place the mold on the pan. Spoon the egg mixture inside the mold until it is almost full to the top. Cook it until the bottom is golden brown. Flip the mold with the omelette in it and cook the other side of the omelette. Once it is golden brown, take the mold with the omelette and set it on a plate. Remove the mold. Be careful since the mold will be hot. I use cooking tongs to remove the mold. Repeat this step until all egg mixture has been used up. If you don't have a mold, you can just divide the egg mixture into 4 and cook each portion like you would for a regular omelette.
Once all the egg mixture has been used, wipe off the pan clean with paper towel since we are going to use it to saute the garlic and sambal oelek. You can also use a different pan if you prefer.
Add 1/2 tablespoon of vegetable oil on a pan. Add garlic and sambal oelek to the pan and saute them until the garlic becomes fragrant. Remove the pan from the heat and turn off the stove.
Put the garlic and sambal oelek in a small bowl. Add peanut butter, sweet soy sauce, salt, hot water, and cooked shrimp paste into the small bowl. Mix all the ingredients until it is well combined. Add more salt, sweet soy sauce, or shrimp paste if needed.
To serve it, divide the omelette into 4 plates. Top each plate with blanched bean sprouts, diced cucumber, and carrots. Drizzle the peanut sauce on top of it and sprinkle with fried onions.

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