Sambal Goreng Tempe

This is what I made for the pot luck gathering on Sunday. It's an Indonesian dish that uses Tempe, which is fermented soybean cakes (soybeans that have been fermented with rice yeast). Sounds gross but is rather bland if cooked on its own. It's a great carrier of flavours and is a popular ingredient in Indonesian and Malay cooking. It's also nutritious as it's high in protein. To be honest, as much as I love eating Indonesian food, sometimes I feel too lazy to cook it cos there's too many ingredients involved, especially if u need to make a spice base (rempah).

uncooked tempe

Source: The Food of Indonesia - Authentic Recipes from the Spice Islands

Ingredients:

• 2 cakes Tempe, cut in long narrow strips and deep fried
• 1 tbsp oil
• 2 shallot, peeled and sliced
• 3 cloves garlic, sliced
• 2 red chillies, sliced
• 2.5cm galangal, peeled and sliced
• 1/2 tsp dried shrimp paste
• 5 tsp chopped palm sugar
• 3 tbsp water
• 1 tbsp tamarind juice
• salt to taste
• 8 bird's eye chillies (chilli padi), chopped

Prepare the tempe and set aside. Heat the oil and saute the shallots, garlic, chillies, galangal and shrimp paste for 2-3 minutes. Add the palm sugar, water and tamarind juice and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Put in the tempe and cook, stirring frequently, until the sauce has reduced and caramelised. Season to taste with salt and stir through the bird's eye chillies just before serving.

Note: I've also added fried peanuts and fried ikan bilis.

ingredients chopped and ready


tempe cut into strips


Sambal Goreng Tempe, peanuts and ikan bilis


I also brought along some konnyaku jelly. But that didn't seem to be as popular as the tempe. The picture was taken in a rush after i had accidentally tipped the container, so the jellies were all out of line after i had so nicely arranged them ><