I like to choose sprouts, especially mung bean sprouts as ingredients for cooking. In addition to being rich in nutrients and believed to be good for reproductive health, sprouts are also easy to combine with various vegetables.
Like this time I will combine bean sprouts with a mixture of melinjo leaves and tofu. How to make this dish is quite easy and it is suitable as a daily side dish.
Before I tell you how to cook this dish, I want to tell you a little bit, why in the end I decided to cook this dish.
Actually, I have now moved to a new area to a new house with my husband because my husband has work.
That's why you will also see pictures that are not like the usual ones that I usually do at my house, I didn't bring my photo props so I only took pictures with the available props in this new rented house.
Because I don't know the locations of the markets in my new area, I decided to shop online. Initially I wanted to buy bay leaves, but because there was a problem with my online vegetable purchase, what finally arrived were melinjo leaves instead of bay leaves.
Melinjo leaves are quite popular in Indonesia. I'm not sure what the name of this vegetable is in English because this plant is more popular in Indonesia, the Philippines and so on. Usually what is cooked is the young melinjo leaves while the old ones are not good to cook. Young melinjo leaves are usually just stir-fried with various other vegetables or added with hot chili sauce.
This is what young melinjo leaves look like. The taste of melinjo leaves is not bitter but there is a strong sensation that is unique that I can't explain in words. But most importantly there is no bitter taste from these melinjo leaves, so if this is your first time trying melinjo leaves in Indonesian dishes, I think you will like it.
In this melinjo leaf dish, I will stir-fry the ingredients with chili sauce, a specialty of the dishes that my husband and I like. Stay tuned.
THE INGREDIENTS
- 100 grams of melinjo leaves
- 100 grams of tofu
- 100 grams of mung bean sprouts
seasoning
- enough red chilies
- 5 cloves of shallots
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 1/2 teaspoons of salt
- 1/2 teaspoons of sugar
- 1/2 teaspoons of mushroom powder
COOKING INSTRUCTIONS
STEP 1
Prepare the chili sauce first. I use a mortar to make the chili and onion seasoning.
You can also use a blender but don't blend the spices too finely. Add salt, sugar, and mushroom stocks or mushroom powder.
STEP 2
Cut melinjo leaves into pieces. I just use my bare hands without using a knife because young melinjo leaves are not hard. So it's easy to tear them with just my bare hands.
STEP 3
Also, cut tofu into pieces. You can cut it into cubes, or even small triangles like I did.
STEP 4
Heat a little vegetable oil. Then, add chili sauce. Saute the spices until fragrant.
Once fragrant, add water up to 250 ml of water.
STEP 5
Add all veggies: sprouts, melinjo leaves, also tofu. Cook them for about 5 minutes with high heat.
I use a lid on the cooking pan so they can cook perfectly. Then, lift, and they are ready to be served!
THE RESULTS
This is the result. It looks like a typical Indonesian dish. 😊 This dish can be enjoyed for 4 servings. But there were only two of us. So, we enjoyed this dish for lunch, also dinner. So, I don't get tired of cooking dinner again.
Spicy, also savory. A delicious combination, which is comfortable on our tongues. Complements rice. Although simple, but appetizing.
This dish was indeed created by accident. But in fact I enjoy cooking melinjo leaves which I haven't cooked for a long time. In the past, my late mother often cooked melinjo leaves. So, a beautiful memory.
Best Regards,
Anggrek Lestari
Anggrek Lestari is an Indonesian fiction writer who has published two major books. Now She is a full-time content creator. She has a goal to share life, poem, and food content that makes others happy and can get inspiration.
Contact Person: authoranggreklestari@gmail.com
Discord: anggreklestari#3009
