January 23rd - Tempeh in Chile Garlic Tamarind Sauce

January 23rd Tempeh in Chile Ginger Tamarind Sauce
I like tempeh but confess that I don’t know a lot of ways to cook it. Tempeh, for those who don’t know, is a fermented soy product that originated in Indonesia, but doesn’t seem to be used much in many other Asian countries and seems virtually non-existent in traditional cooking from China, Thailand and Japan (as far as I can tell). It comes in small cakes of about 8-10 ounces and seems to be best when it’s sliced and cooked in oil before adding it to anything else. A lot of people say it has a mushroom-like flavor and it’s a good comparison, although it has its own flavor to me.
Because of its obscurity, there don’t seem to be many “authentic” (ie, Indonesian and Malaysian) tempeh recipes around. Most that I’ve seen come out of what I like to call the “hippie vegetarian” school and don’t’ sound very appetizing to me (tempeh-topped pizza or tempeh tacos, anyone?). My tempeh repertoire is pretty straight forward at this point and most of it comes from James Oseland’s Cradle of Flavor, which I’ve written about earlier. The recipes he lists are authentic and delicious.
Like all cooks, I substituted what I had on hand for what I recalled his recipe used. I started by cutting the tempeh into strips and then browned it in oil on both of the cut sides. I pulled it out of the pan, then added some red onion, green chili and ginger and sautéed them. Like many Asian dishes, it has a balance of sweet, sour and hot. To add the sour element, I degalezed the pan with some tamarind paste dissolved in water. Then I added some jiggery to give the contrasting sweet flavor. The original recipe called for galangal root, but I didn’t have any and used ginger (though I will agree with James Oseland that the two are not interchangeable and have very different flavors). I added the tempeh slices back in and let it reduce to a sweet sour syrup.
For a side dish, I stir fried some cabbage with garlic and red pepper and then served everything with basmati rice. I had a pint of the brown ale and it went nicely. The malt sweetness worked well with the chilis and was a nice contrast to the tanginess of the tamarind and the earthy notes of the tempeh. I need to learn to make other tempeh recipes, but so far this one has been a nice addition to my vegetarian repertoire.