Balado Udang dan Tahu (Prawns and Tofu Balado)

Hmm.. I want to eat something hot and spicy. So, I'm going to make balado dish today. What is balado? What kind of dish is it? Let me introduce you. Balado is one of Indonesian dish which is originally from Minangkabau. It is very popular in Indonesia especially around West Sumatra or Aceh Province. Balado means with / using chili. The chili will be blended together with garlic and shallot, and then sauteed with oil. This sauteed chili will be mixed with any kind of ingredients such as boiled egg, chicken, dried meat, and many thing else. We can use balado as condiment as well. We call it sambal balado. Is it spicy? Of course. It's chili. :)

My mother in law taught me how to make prawns balado. She learned it from her mother in law who is originally from Aceh Province. So i can proudly tell this is an original family recipe. Well... not really original because i add fried tofu into the balado for economic reason.

Ingredients :

• 10-12 Chili peppers
• 3 medium shallot (or 8 Indonesian shallot)
• 2 cloves of garlic
• vegetable oil
• 1 tbs sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tbs lime juice
• 500 grams prawns
• 1 block of tofu
• 9 quail egg

Preparation :

1. Peel and clean the prawns including the tails and the veins.
2. Rinse them with water few times and dry them up with kitchen paper.
3. Cut the tofu into small cubes (about 3x3x3 cm for each cube. No need precise cut)
4. Put quail eggs into a boiling water and boil them for about 5-6 min. Remove the eggs from the hot water, rinse them with cold water, and peel the eggs. 
5. In a pan, heat about 1 cup of oil. Fry all tofu until the tofu become golden brown. Remove them from the heat and set aside. 
6. In the same pan, fry all the prawns until they are cooked and their color become pink. Remove them from the heat and set aside. Do not overcook the prawns otherwise they will become too tough.
7. Remove all chili pepper's seeds.
8. Blend all chili peppers together with shallots and garlic. (Add some water if needed)
   
9. In a big pan, heat about 5 tbs oil. Saute the blended spices with low medium heat until fragrant and its color become red. At this point, about 50% of the water are evaporated already.  
   
   

   

   This is blended spices before sauteed. 

   
   

   

   And this is blended spices after sauteed for few minutes. Most of the water are evaporated already and the color become darker then before.

     
10. Add sugar, salt, pepper, and lime juice.
11. Add fried prawns, fried tofu, and quail eggs into the pan.
12. Stir well for about 5 min until all prawns, tofu and eggs are covered with the spices. 
13. Serve it hot with steamed rice, sliced cucumber and starch cracker.