kering tempe

My housemates think I'm levelling up in tempeh, but what's actually happening is that I'm getting more South East Asian in my tempeh prep and cooking. It's so great! Let me tell you how.

Tempe kering (or kering tempe) is just tempeh that has been shallow fried and deliciously flavoured. The important elements are to slice the tempeh thin, to fry it in heaps of oil at a high temperature, and to add a delicious flavour with it.

One of my favourite comfort foods is pictured here to the left, a more traditional kering tempe served as part of comfort food maggi mee. To cook this I started frying the tempe in a whole lot of sunflower oil (which is my favourite vegetable oil at the moment). After I'd done both sides once, I added a paste mixture comprising of grated palm sugar, kecap manis, ginger, garlic, coriander seeds, cumin and chilli. Sometimes I use fresh stuff and pound it together, and sometimes I just use a whole lot of already ground ingredients. I usually guess proportions based on my mood, but about a teaspoon of each and a whole lot of kecap manis to go with about half a pack of tempeh.

To be totally traditional, this should be fried with peanuts, but I usually don't have peanuts in the house so sad for me. It's still good without!

To the right is a modification I'm really happy with. I roasted half a butternut pumpkin, skin on. This pumpkin was coated in sunflower oil and maple syrup, before going into the oven for about 35 minutes, turning halfway.

When the pumpkin was cooked I drained off the marinade and poured it straight into a fry pan, where I proceeded to add some extra oil and then fry the tempeh until it was in crispy sizzle town. I then poured the pumpkin in, fried it all around, and served it as a side dish. It's amazing!

Fried tempeh is a gift to us all.

It's important not to use olive oil when you're making kering tempe, because you need very high temperatures to get a beautiful, crispy tempeh. Use a canola, sunflower or peanut oil instead.

easy good food: pasta salad with marinated tempeh

I've had a few requests lately for easy, nutritious, fast, after-work vegan food, so this is the first post in an occasional series of easy good fast foods. For the most part they're rounded meals on their own, or close enough. They're my comfort foods, my lazy foods, my whatever is in the house foods. I almost always have the supplies, or most of the supplies, in the house required to make these meals.

They do rely in part on pre-prepared things, but no shame, I mean, I'm not gonna sun dry my own tomatoes, am I? (spoilers: I'm not)

We'll start with one of my favourite summer recipes, sun-dried tomato pasta salad with marinated tempeh.

I know! How can something that involves marinating be fast? Trust me on this one. It's great. It's so great I made this salad twice on Thursday last week, and a big batch of it on Boxing Day (not just for me).

To serve two people (maybe three)
Pots and things that will need washing up: two (a pot for pasta, and a frypan, but maybe you can mix the pasta in the pot). Also a colander.
Time: ten minutes for prep, ten-fifteen for cooking
Complete meal: you got your proteins, your fresh vegetables, your grains, your oils/fats, your deliciousness.

You will need:
100g plain tempeh
some five spice powder
little bit of sesame oil (teaspoon or two)
a tablespoon or three of light soy sauce

200g pasta spirals (spirals! very important!)
100g sundried tomatoes (if they're pre-sliced strips, this is easier, but if they're not remember to cut them into strips)
dash of lemon juice
dried chilli flakes to your desired hotness (I usually use about half a teaspoon) (these really should be flakes, by the way, not ground)
big handful of something fresh that you can eat raw (such as snow peas, or capsicum)
handful of nuts or seeds (such as cashews or sunflower seeds)


What you do:
Slice the tempeh thin, like bacon strips or something, then mix together the five spice, sesame oil and soy sauce and marinate the tempeh in it. If there's not enough liquid, add some more. Sometimes I add minced ginger if I have any in the fridge, but it's totally not compulsory. Leave to marinate.

Put on the pasta to boil. Slice up the fresh things (and the sundried tomatoes if necessary) into nice single bite chunks. You will notice this is basically everything. At this point, fry the tempeh in a little vegetable oil until it's nice and brown on both sides.

When the pasta is firm but ready, drain it and then in a bowl (or the pot!) mix together all of those ingredients that aren't the tempeh or marinade, including the things that look like dressing (lemon juice, chilli, and the oil from those sun-dried tomatoes!), and the nuts. Mix well to make sure the dressing is even! Serve with tempeh on top or beside. Eat.


Variations:
This seems oily, I know, but you control the oil via how much of the sun-dried tomato oil you put in. Other than that, you can change up your fresh veggies, your nuts and seeds, and even swap out the tomato for marinated artichokes or capsicum if that takes your fancy! Don't swap out the spirals, they are perfect for grabbing onto the flavour.
I am submitting this to Cate's Cates for the Substantial Salads Challenge. You should submit stuff too!

walnut + mushroom pasta (with bonus tempeh)

I was skeptical, at first, but it turns out a creamy pasta made from walnuts and featuring soy sauce is actually really delicious! I saw this originally at Seitan is my Motor and have modified it a bit, but I suspect the original deliciousness is still there! This wasn't too complicated, though it did make quite a few dishes.



walnut + mushroom pasta
modified from seitan is my motor

ingredients
quarter of a cup of light soy sauce or tamari sauce
200g plain tempeh
three quarters of a cup of walnut halves or walnut pieces
1 chilli
just over half a cup of rice milk
1 clove garlic (minced) (or a teaspoonish of minced jarred garlic)
some oil (canola is fine, though olive is better. margarine/nuttelex is also okay)
1 teaspoon paprika
a shake of thyme
a shake of marjoram
350 - 400g fettucine
eta: and mushrooms!

method
Dice the tempeh small, then soak in the soy sauce for about half an hour. If it soaks up all the soy sauce, add a little bit more. Make sure it's light soy! If you use dark soy then there will be tears. Sometime during this half an hour, set the pasta on to boil. When the pasta is done, drain, but reserve a smidge of the water.

In a blender, blend the walnuts with the milk, the garlic and the chilli. Slice the mushrooms. In a pan, saute the tempeh (with any leftover soy sauce in which it was soaking) in a little oil or nuttelex, until it starts crisping, then add the mushrooms. Saute these until they are almost cooked through, then throw in the walnut mixture, plus the paprika, thyme and marjoram. Simmer for five minutes or so, until it has started to thicken (...more) and then throw in the reserved pasta water. Let it all simmer through, then combine with the pasta and a swish of lemon juice, and serve piping hot.

The soy sauce combined with the tempeh and the walnuts to be amazing, and the addition of the chilli was perfect! If you want to reheat it, toss through a little lemon juice.

brunch at source foods, highgate

My favourite place to have brunch in Perth is Source Foods. They know what vegan means (they call it 'NAP' - No Animal Products), which is rare enough in Perth; and they serve tempeh, which is also pretty unusual.

Anyway, it's my favourite, so Alexa and I went there on Saturday morning.

We took advantage of the lovely Perth weather to sit outside. Usually in winter I find it too cold to sit outside in Perth, but one winter in Melbourne and suddenly it is glorious! I didn't even have to wear a scarf! Or a coat! It was amazing!



I ordered, as I have many times before, the vegan heaven: tomato, two (two!) types of mushrooms, wilted spinach and baked beans, served on crisp bread with hommus. I also ordered it with a side of soy-marinated tempeh. It was so amazing. SO AMAZING. I ate it all up.

Alexa ordered the mushroom crostini, mushrooms with wilted spinach on hommus and crisp breadishness. She was indulging in mushrooms in her mushroom-hating housemate's absence.

Not pictured: our juices. Alexa ordered orange + ginger, and I ordered the 'zinger,' which contains orange and ginger and asomething else that I can never remember, maybe apple.

After brunch we went adventuring: to North Perth, where we visited Little Design Horse; and then in to Mount Lawley, where we visited Planet, primarily so we could visit the greatest bookstore in the world. I know some people prefer Oxford St Books in Leederville, but I can never go past Planet.




Previous visit: here.


Source Foods
289 Beaufort St
Highgate

gf available (this post is tagged gf because the menu can be very gf)

super awesome tempeh and quinoa lasagne

A few Saturdays ago I arrived at FoE, as I often do on a Saturday, at about 12:30. Esula called out to me as I sauntered past; "Hey Steph," he said, "You need to get yourself a lunch plate right now."

I wandered into the kitchen (after tying back my hair, I am a good girl) and discovered that Gen had made a super awesome vegan lasagne. She had also made a vegan and gluten-free one! The lasagne (not-gf) had her secret white sauce, and was thick with all sorts of deliciousness, including quinoa, and I knew that when I went home that night I had to try to make something just as awesome.

AND I DID.



super awesome tempeh and quinoa lasagne

These proportions made a third again extra filling and tomato sauce, but I'm okay with that because I used them to make pies the next night. If you had a bigger lasagne tray than me, you could just dump the extra filling in and make a bigger lasgane. I'm not sure how this extra filling will translate when I don't have leftovers to work in, as I've noted through this recipe.

ingredients
tempeh filling
400g tempeh, crumbled
450g spinach (this weight measurement included stalks and roots, as I was weighing bunches), washed and shredded (leaves only, though)
a tablespoon of nuttelex, and a little olive oil
half a red onion, diced
one third of a cup of red wine
2 cloves garlic, minced
half a cup of raw quinoa (or equivalent cooked)
leftover pasta + sauce OR half a cup of the red tomato sauce you will make at the same time

red tomato pasta sauce
1200g canned diced tomatoes (three small cans)
your favourite herbs and spices (I used a combination of dried chilli and fresh oregano and basil)

white cashew sauce
1 cup cashews
1 cup boiling water
shake of salt
some basil leaves

also: lasagne sheets
a tray, approx 15 x 30cm


method

to make the super tasty filling: in some nuttelex and olive oil, fry the onions and the tempeh. after a few minutes, add the garlic, and keep on frying. if it starts to stick as it sucks up the oil, add some more nuttelex or oil. occasionally, add some red wine, and let it suck it up. keep on frying until the onion is soft and the tempeh is mostly or all the way cooked, and you've used up all the red wine. at this point, gradually add the spinach, and let it wilt. at the same time or earlier, cook the quinoa if it's raw (remembering to wash it well first). then stir through the cooked quinoa, as well as the tomato pasta sauce (or the miscellaneous leftover pasta that you need to use up before it goes off), and let simmer for about five more minutes. set aside!

at approximately the same time, you need to make the red tomato sauce for the lasagne. this is super easy! on a medium heat, cook the tomatoes (juices and all), along with some fresh and dried herbs and spices, with the lid on, for about fifteen to twenty minutes, or until it's reduced and looking like a pasta sauce. set aside!

while this is all going on, soak your cashews in the water for about twenty minutes, and then really quickly, in a blender or food processor combine the cashews, water, basil leaves and salt for your white cashew sauce.

then you are ready to combine!

to put the lasagne together, begin: spread a thin layer of the tomato pasta sauce across the bottom of the tray. put out some lasagne sheets. put down some more tomato sauce, then some of the filling (about a centimetre thick), then about half of the cashew sauce. repeat a second time - lasagne sheets, tomato sauce, filling, cashew sauce. finally, put down the last layer of lasagne sheets, then some more tomato sauce.

heat that oven to 200C, then bake that lasagne for about 40 minutes, or until the lasagne sheets are soft.

EAT IT.

lasagne with cashew cheese and spinach

I love lasagne. I love it a lot.

So last week I tried this lasagne with cashew cheese and spinach by The Messy Vegetarian Cook. I modified it a little bit, and recommend some further modifications, but it was AWESOME.



I didn't use smoked tofu, but only because I had forgotten to buy any. I increased the amount of tomatoes (I went up to about 800g of canned tomatoes, which is two cans ish. Next time I will probably even increase this more to make more sauce). I used tempeh instead of a vegan mince - and I would recommend further modifying this by adding red wine to the pan when frying the tempeh.

And that was it! Super delicious, a bit time consuming, and quite dishes intensive, but I enjoyed it!

super amazing tempe salad

Cast your mind back to Saturday afternoon. I'm not sure how it was for you, but in Melbourne it was warm and we were feeling lazy. Danni thought we should use some spinach, since the spinach we are currently growing is quite amazing in its size and availability. Possessed by something, I don't know, Jo suggested salad.

I know, I know, we're vegans. We need to avoid salad, to convince all those doubters that there is more to veganism than just salad! Think of all those delicious vegan, non-salad meals you've eaten! Think of all those terrible vegan salads you've been forced to endure!

This was not one of those salads. It was, in fact, totally worth being vegan for. (ignore that dangling preposition)



We took our inspiration from Asula, the AMAZING chef on roster at FOE on Saturdays. He cooks the greatest tempe ever. Apparently it is handmade locally by someone, and then Asula works some sort of magic on it so it's really delicious.

In a lunchbox, I combined equal parts tamari and light soy sauce (approx four tablespoons of each) with about half a teaspoon each of ground cumin and ground coriander, and one clove of minced garlic. I cubed my tempe erratically but vaguely in similar sizes, and coated it all in the mixture. Feel free to shake some more soy sauce over the top if it doesn't look moist enough. I put this in the fridge to marinate for about half an hour. Just a note - if I were doing this for gf buddies, I would drop the light soy and double the tamari.

At this point I ventured out of the house to buy some spirits, and Jo and Danni chopped up a handful of walnuts, one beautiful avocado (it is important that the avocado is beautiful), one punnet of cherry tomatoes, a pear and a carrot, which they julienned. They combined this with freshly picked spinach from our garden, and a little bit of lemon juice.

Upon my glorious and successful return, I fried the tempe in some peanut oil (you can use vege oil if you need to avoid peanuts). Don't be timid with the oil, you don't want to be deep frying but you want the tempe to crisp right on up. Fry, turning as needed, for about eight to ten minutes, until crispy and tasty-looking. Then throw it in the salad, as I did, and serve up with something delicious on the side. In our case, it was some left over lentils from FOE. In your case, maybe the world's greatest vausage rolls or something similar.

rice paper rolls

Miss T made some delicious rice paper rolls at Sunday's potluck, and it was these we were thinking of on Thursday night when we decided to make some. I love rice paper rolls! They are quick and easy to make (if you have someone giving you a hand, or if everyone rolls their own), and I always enjoy eating something that's basically raw vegetables dipped in soy sauce.



For the filling, I made two types of tempeh, garlic + soy, and five-spice. The garlic + soy idea came from Tempting Tempeh, light soy, garlic, sugar, smidge of sesame oil. The five-spice was my usual, five spice + dark soy + light soy. Marinated both sets of tempeh for a few hours, whilst we traipsed out to Collingwood and Richmond for vegan adventures. The rest of the filling comprised of beehoon (rice noodles), thin strips of raw capsicum, thin strips (using the potato peeler) of carrot, and a whole lot of bean shoots.

It was a team effort, filling and rolling the rice paper, and it was delicious. Eat immediately, whilst still fresh.

Use tamari instead of soy sauce to make this gf. and skip the five spice.

five spice tempeh and noodles

First blog from the new kitchen! This isn't the first meal I've cooked since we arrived in Melbourne (I cooked a few times at SJ and Essie's house); nor is this the first meal I've cooked in this kitchen (there were some burgers, and some dahl and roti last week); but here we are at the first blog post from the new kitchen, and I'm a little bit excited.

Thanks to everyone who advised me on where I might buy some supplies. My big successes were the Indo grocery at Barkly Square, Minh Phat at the markets, and Richmond Asian Grocery on Victoria Street in Richmond (about 200ish), which had a huge freezer filled with vegan bao and other goodies, and the most giant yao chao guai ever (which I've not yet cooked, though it is in my fridge). Seriously, it was like 40, maybe 50 cm long.

Anyway. Five spice is such a great flavour, it instantly makes anything delicious and is just awesome. I find the best combination is to pair it with a little dark and a little light soy, it really complements the flavour.

5 spice tempeh and noodles



ingredients
1 pack yellow noodles (500g)
1 pack tempeh
1 tablespoon 5 spice
4 tablespoon dark soy
1 tablespoon light soy
1 tablespoon sesame oil
lots of peanut oil
1 carrot
half a capsicum
half a teaspoon chilli flakes
extra light soy
bean shoots (prepared)
choy sum or chinese cabbage
1 clove garlic (minced)
some ginger (sliced or minced)
quarter of a cup of dried mushrooms

prepare the tempeh:
Dissolve the five-spice into the dark soy and one tablespoon of light soy. Slice up the tempeh into fingers, about 10cm in length. In a container with a lid, marinate the tempeh in the five spice and soy. Make sure the lid is on tight, because after a while you will flip the container over (to ensure it's well marinated). Marinate for at least an hour in the fridge - I like to leave it for a couple of hours.

cooking it all:
In a wok, pour some peanut oil, at least three or four tablespoons. When it is hot and ready to go, start placing the tempeh into the oil, three or four fingers at a time. After a minute or so, flip, so both sides are cooked. Then after a minute on that side, move the tempeh to the side of the wok, still near the flame but out of the oil. Put in the next lot of tempeh. This bit can get a bit complicated, you have to keep an eye on the tempeh in the oil, and also flip the tempeh on the side of the wok. As you move the next lot up, you can put that tempeh from the sides onto a baking tray. Repeat process until all is finished. Bake tempeh at about 180C for about 15 minutes, flipping halfway.

Take the container in which you were marinating the tempeh. Add two or three tablespoons of hot stock, and half a teaspoon of dried chilli flakes, to the left over marinade.

Julienne the carrot and capsicum. Cut up the cabbage into finger sized strips. Soak the mushrooms in hot water.

Remove any excess oil from the wok, conserving about a teaspoon in the wok. Start up the heat again on high, and through in ginger and garlic. Stir-fry for a few minutes, then add carrot and capsicum. Toss and fry, then add a spoon or two of water and put on the lid. Leave to steam for a few minutes, tossing occasionally, until soft. Add the cabbage about midway.

Rinse the noodles. Toss the noodles, mushrooms and beanshoots into the wok, as well as the light soy, the sesame oil, and the left over five-spice marinade mixture. You can also add some of the mushroom liquid, if you like slightly damp noodles. Put lid on, and leave for a minute or two. Then toss four or five of the tempeh fingers into the wok, breaking them into smaller pieces as you toss.

Serve, garnished with two or three slices of tempeh.

pasta salad with five-spice tempeh

Last week I made five-spice tempeh twice in a couple of days. The first time I served it more traditionally, with rice and gailan and things, but the next day the weather was quite warm and I’m trying to get more into salads this summer, so thought I’d try my hand at a pasta salad.

five-spice tempeh pasta salad



ingredients
five spice tempeh
½ avocado (diced)
¾ pack pasta spirals (I use the 500g packs)
half a dozen sundried tomatoes (roughly chopped)
1 cup beanprouts (washed and tails off)
handful of snow peas (chopped into four or five pieces, ends removed)
half a dozen mushrooms (sliced)
a large handful of spinach
peanut oil

2-3 tablespoons of lemon juice
1 clove garlic (minced)
1ish tablespoon chili flakes
half cup vege stock
one shake apple cider vinegar
shake or three sesame oil


method
Prepare the pasta spirals.

Prepare the tempeh (link). Don’t clean the wok after frying the tempeh; instead, add a little more peanut oil and fry the mushrooms. Due to the method used for the tempeh, there should be crispy spiced bits floating about in the oil. This will give the mushrooms a slightly spicy, wok-hei sort of flavour.

Combine the lemon juice, garlic, chili flakes, (hot) vegetable stock, vinegar and sesame oil. Mix until well combined. Drain the pasta, rinse in cold water, and in a large serving dish combine with avocado, tomatoes, beansprouts, snow peas, mushrooms, and spinach. Pour in the dressing and mix well. Leave to soak in for a few minutes, top with tempeh and serve whilst the pasta is still slightly warm.


This time around I used baby spinach, but not-baby spinach will work fine.

five spice tempeh

I love the taste of five-spice. One of the first things I made my mum teach me to cook was five-spice chicken, marinated for hours and fried in the wok and baked. I remember watching her so many times as I was growing up, the noise of the wok and the smell of the spice and it was actually the last thing I cooked involving meat.

I’ve put it out of my mind for years, unable to decide what could hold its shape and yet soak in the flavour of the spices. Potato wouldn’t take to the frying, and tofu would fall apart, and no other vegetable would have the right texture. I’m not a huge fan of tempeh, but in a wave of inspiration I decided to give it a go last week, and it went exactly the way that I felt it should, even though my five spice is a little old. The tempeh was spicy, and crisp, and that smoky, delicious flavour was just as I remembered it, and I made it again last night.



five spice tempeh

ingredients
1 pack tempeh
1 tablespoon 5-spice
4 tablespoon dark soy
1 tablespoon light soy if the mixture is looking a bit strong

You will need a gas burner, and a wok. You might get away with using a frying pan, but frying pan is a different style of frying and I take no responsibility for any lack of wok-hei or change in cookability that you may encounter.

method
Mix together the five spice and the dark soy, until the spice has dissolved. If it’s looking a bit too overwhelming, add a dash or two of light soy. Slice the tempeh into fingers about 15mm by 10cm, then coat in the marinade. There should be enough marinade to coat the tempeh, and still have a bit of liquid floating around the bottom of the container. Sit for at least an hour in the fridge.

Wok on the stove, burner up high. Put a little bit of peanut oil in a wok, no more than two tablespoons, and swirl around up the sides. Using chopsticks or tongs, place the tempeh first in the middle, where the oil should be starting to pool, and then up in the ring around the centre, where the flames hit the wok. Don’t do all of the tempeh at once, at least not if you’ve never used this technique before – perhaps do six or seven slices at one time. Turn each slice, occasionally but not constantly swirling the oil through the centre and up the ring (just when it looks like you need more oil up there), for about three or four minutes. Remove the tempeh to a tray, and continue wok frying until all the tempeh has been through the wok. Spread on oven tray, and bake on 180C for about fifteen minutes, turning halfway.

The wok crisps up the outsides, and the oven allows it to gently bake the flavour through. The oil left has this great crispy, spicy wok-hei kind of flavour, which last night I used to fry sliced mushrooms, something I will elaborate upon in another post.

Serve the tempeh any way you please, I like to serve it on a bed of bean shoots or cucumber, or just eat it straight from the oven.