Classic Style: Fried Tempeh with Sambal Terasi

Ah, I know most of the Indonesian know how to make it and already eat it as daily meals. But I just want to share, maybe some of you (the foreigner) want to know the classic style to eat fried tempeh. Wait, this recipe is easy... and it could be the 'emergency' meals for me when I'm hungry. Hehe.

You know the Indonesian loves to eat sambal - spicy sauce for dipping. And fried tempeh is really match with sambal terasi, just dip the tempeh into the sambal and eat it with warm rice. Yumm. When I was a little girl, I dislike spicy thing - like sambal, so on that time I ate fried tempeh with kecap (soy bean sauce).

So,

How to make fried tempeh?

I think there are two ways to season tempeh. First, by marinating the tempeh into seasoning concentrate. Second, by slow cooking the tempeh until the seasoned water is seeping well into the tempeh. Well, I'll share the easiest one: marinate tempeh.

All you need is:

1. A block of tempeh, slice it with the thickness max 1 cm. Scratch the tempeh's surface by knife
2. 2 cloves of garlic
3. A tablespoon of coriander seed
4. 1/2 tablespoon of salt
5. About 100 ml water

Steps:

1. Grind all the spices: salt, coriander, and garlic.
2. Add water to the spices. Mix well, then marinate tempeh. Keep the tempeh into seasoning concentrate about 15 minutes.
3. Deep fry tempeh until its color is golden brown.
4. Fried tempeh is ready to serve

How to make the hot dipping of sambal terasi?

You need:

1. 3-4 pcs curly red chili (or as you desire)
2. 3 cloves garlic
3. 4 cloves onion
4. 1 medium tomato, cut into wedges.
5. 1/2 teaspoon shrimp paste
6. 1/2 teaspoon palm sugar (or as you desire)
7. A teaspoon salt (or as you desire)
8. A tablespoon cooking oil

Steps:

1. Stir fry all the ingredients of no. 1-5 until wilt (may take about 15 minutes).
2. Grind all the ingredients until well mix and smooth. Don't forget to add salt and palm sugar for flavoring. You may use blender or traditional stone grinder to grind the ingredients, if you use blender...just put all the ingredients. But if you use traditional stone grinder, grind the ingredients step by step to ease the grinding process. First, grind salt and chili together, then garlic and onion, next grind with palm sugar and shrimp paste, the last is grind all by adding the tomato.
3. After all well mix and smooth, you may re-stir fry your sambal terasi to reduce the water content and increase the flavor.

Nah, now you can make the Indonesian style of tempeh goreng with sambal terasi! Try it!