Home-made tempe
2009.07.13 22:02
Here are some pics from kucingputi of a small-scale tempe producer…
Tempe is fermented soybean cake –a Wikipedia entry about it can be found here. And I don’t know why it’s spelled “tempeh” in English. It sounds so wankerish… :p
Tempe is a staple in the Indonesian menu, most notably in Java, where it originated. We can simply fry tempe and eat it with some rice (and some sambel or chili paste would make it even better :p)
Our favorite, however, is tempe mendoan. This is a unique variety of fried tempe, hailing from the Banyumas regency in the western part of the Central Java province (whose people also have a unique dialect of the Javanese language, known as Banyumasan).
Simply put, tempe mendoan is tempe that is thinly sliced, dipped into a batter of wheat and rice flour and some other spices (garlic and leek, I think), then dipped for just the right amount of time in very hot cooking oil… until it’s perfectly “medium rare” (in steak-speak). Perfectly, coz that’s how genuine tempe mendoan should be, and not like the ordinary thinly-sliced-as-well, but just-wheat-flour-battered and well-fried tempe, which try to pass off as tempe mendoan.
Eat some tempe mendoan while they’re still hot, with a cup of freshly-brewed Java/Bali/Aceh/Toraja coffee (your pick from among the 4 finest coffee beans in Indonesia), during a cold rainy day… and you have yourself your own small private heaven… :p
Well, anyway… Enjoy the pics… (Sorry, just the pics for now, as kucingputi is a bit preoccupied at the moment. But do stay tuned for more of her wonderful writings to come.)
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