Tempe Goreng [Fried Tempe]

Tempe is many Indonesians’ can’t-missed part of daily meal. It’s healthy and cheap thus easily  accessed by anyone there. I am not sure if it’s widely available in other countries.

Tempe is made of fermented soybean. The beans are knit together by a mat of white mycelia (part of fungus).The fermentation made the protein more digestible and is a good source of fiber (see more in Wikipedia). 

There are many ways to eat tempe. This time Mom made this “crispy sweet spicy tempe goreng“. With additional of potato sticks, it really made a nice snack (I couldn’t stop eating, oops). Surpisingly, it was still crispy even after 8 hours in open air. It’s said that the sugar content captured the crispness (not sure how true hehe) The ingredient: tempe, potato, red chilies, small red onions, lime, sugar.

Preparation:

• Tempe usually come in a block. Cut the tempe into small pieces (around 5mmX5mmX35mm).
• Cut the potato into small thin sticks.
• Strip the red onions off the skin, put them in food processor together with the chilies, add a bit of water to assist the process. If you don’t eat chilies, you can forgo that.

 

Cooking: Step#1 Fry ‘em all  

Heat up some oil in the wok. Fry the tempe till it’s brownish. Fry the potato sticks until crispy. Put them aside.

Step#2: Mix ‘em all  

Heat up the wok again and input a bit of oil. Wait for half min, input the chilies+onion mixture. Add sugar (3 spoons), add lime juice; fry for one min. Turn off the heat. Input the fried stuff and mix them all