Asian Recipes and Cooking Guide

Cooking Tips, Kitchen Skills and Recipes.....

Made from soy beans, tempeh is similar to tofu but has a nuttier taste. Here, it is combined with a fragrant blend of lemon grass, coriander and ginger. Note that mirin is a sweet rice wine from Japan. It has quite a delicate flavor and is used for cooking. Rice wine for drinking, called sake, is rather more expensive. Both are available from Asian food stores. If you cannot locate mirin, dry sherry can be used instead, although the results will not be quite the same.

Ingredients: (Makes eight)

1 lemon grass stalk, outer leaves removed and inside finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped

2 scallions (spring onions), finely chopped

2 shallots, finely chopped

2 fresh red chilies, seeded and finely chopped

2.5 cm/1 inch piece fresh root ginger, finely chopped

60 ml/4 tablespoons chopped fresh coriander (cilantro), plus extra for garnish

250 g/9 oz tempeh, thawed if frozen, sliced

15 ml/1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

5 ml/1 teaspoon granulated sugar

45 ml/3 tablespoons plain (all-purpose) flour

1 large egg, lightly beaten

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Vegetable oil, for frying

For the dipping sauce:

45 ml/3 tablespoons mirin

45 ml/3 tablespoons white wine vinegar

2 scallions (spring onions), thinly sliced

15 ml/1 tablespoon granulated sugar

2 fresh red chilies, seeded and finely chopped

30 ml/2 tablespoons chopped fresh coriander (cilantro)

Large pinch of salt

Method:

Make the dipping sauce. Mix together the mirin, vinegar, scallions, sugar, chilies, coriander and salt in a small bowl. Cover with clear film (plastic wrap) and set aside until ready to serve.

Place the lemon grass, garlic, scallions, shallots, chilies, ginger and coriander in a food processor or blender, then process to a coarse paste. Add the tempeh, lime juice and sugar and process until combined. Add the flour and egg, with salt and pepper to taste. Process again until the mixture forms a coarse, sticky paste.

Scrape the paste into a bowl. Take one-eighth of the mixture at a time and form it into rounds with your hands. Heat a little oil in a large frying pan. Fry the tempeh cakes for 5-6 minutes, turning once, until golden. Drain on kitchen paper. Transfer to a platter, garnish and serve with the sauce.

Happy Cooking,

Carol