Another recipe from my childhood. They say that fragrance brings back memories, and that is so true. Another thing they say, that you eat with your eyes, nose and finally your mouth, this one is also true.
The whole kitchen smells like my mother’s kitchen when I cooked this and I thought, I must be getting better at cooking Indonesian, if this meal smells the same like my mother’s, it must be as good. Well, let me just say, it’s good enough to rendezvous your childhood memories.
In my defense, I made do with what I have. I only have this black soy sauce, which in Indonesia we call it “kecap” and I assumed it’s from ketchup, although they are two totally different things. So with just kecap and tempe to begin this recipe journey, I got the smell right, taste pretty delicious and definitely easy to make.
Ingredients:
8 oz tempeh -cut into 1″ cubes
3 tbsp olive oil
2 birds eye chillies -seeded, thinly sliced
2 jalapeno peppers -seeded, thinly sliced
3 shallots -thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic -thinly sliced
1 bay leaf
1 tsp galangal powder
1 tbsp brown sugar
3 tbsp kecap manis
Salt to taste
1/4 cup water
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 400F
- Place tempeh (in a single layer) on a baking sheet, drizzle 2 tbsp of olive oil and some salt. Cook in the oven for 10 minutes, flip over then cook for an additional 5 minutes.
- In a large skillet, heat 1 tbsp of olive oil, sauté birds eye chillies, jalapeño, shallots and garlic until fragrant, about 3-5 minutes.
- Add bay leaf, galangal powder, brown sugar, salt and water and cook to boil.
- Add baked tempeh and kecap manis, give a good stir and let it cook until most of the liquid evaporates, about 5 minutes.
- Take the bay leaf out and serve immediately with cooked rice. Enjoy!