Tempeh Orek

Equipment:

• Cook’s knife
• Cutting Board
• Food processor
• Large metal bowl
• Baking tray

Ingredients:

• 500 g Tempeh (Large diced)
• 4 Large red chili (Deseeded and course chopped)
• 1 Medium tomato (Course chopped)
• 100 g Shallots (Finely diced)
• 25 g Galangal (Skin removed and large diced)
• 0.5 tsp Mushroom powder
• 2 tbsp Kecap manis (Indonesian sweet soya sauce) (Ideally Bangor brand)
• 1 tbsp Gula melaka
• 10 g Tamarind paste with seeds (Dissolve the paste in hot water and then remove the seeds)
• 1 tbsp Light soya sauce
• 5 leaves Kaffir lime (Finely minced)
• Cooking oil
• Salt
• Pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
2. In a large bowl, toss the tempeh cubes in a couple of tablespoons of oil and a generous pinch of salt.
3. Spread the tempeh in an even layer on a baking tray and bake for [timer minutes=0]15 min[/timer] until tempeh has developed a golden crust on the outside.
4. In a blender, blend the tomato and chilies into a smooth paste. Set aside.
5. Next, heat a couple of tablespoons of oil over high heat in a frying pan. Once the pan is hot, fry the onions together with the galangal until the onions are translucent (about 5 min).
6. Reduce the heat to medium, then add the blended chili and tomato paste into the frying pan with the onions and galangal. Fry until the chili and tomato paste have turned a darker red.
7. Add the tempeh to the frying pan and stir until the tempeh is well coated. Try to be gentle with the tempeh so that it doesn’t turn into a crumbly mess, unless that’s what you’re trying to achieve.
8. Add the mushroom powder, kecap manis, gula melaka, tamarind juice, soya sauce and half the kaffir lime leaves to the frying pan and continue to stir until the sauces have thickened into a sticky coating around the tempeh.
9. Taste the tempeh and adjust the flavour according to taste. Add more tamarind if you like it more sour, add more gula melaka if you like it more sweet and add more soya sauce if you like it more salty. Then add ground black .
10. Dish out onto a serving dish and sprinkle the remaining kaffir lime leaves on top as a garnishing.