Vegetarian tempeh rendang

by on May 13, 2013, 0 comments

Vegetarian tempeh rendang

Indonesian beef rendang is one of my all-time favourite dishes. It’s a to-die-for dry beef curry cooked in coconut milk and plenty of Southeast Asian spices, until the curry is dry and caramelised. I’ve always had a soft spot for its complex flavour that’s spicy, sweet and savoury with a hint of citrusy kaffir lime.

You got to hand it to the Minangkabau ethnic group of West Sumatra in Indonesia for creating this fabulous dish. Rendang is cooked for hours upon hours and is one of the most famous Indonesian meat dishes out there. Beef rendang is the most popular version, but you can also make it with liver, chicken, mutton etc. The flavour of rendang is unforgettable, so it’s little wonder that rendang has also become very popular with Malay cooking in Malaysia and Singapore. Just like turkey for Thanksgiving and ham for Christmas, rendang is a festive food popular during Hari Raya (that’s the Malay term for the Islamic Eid al-Fitr holiday). And thankfully, you can also get it outside of holidays at eating houses like Pondok Buyung.

I’m pescetarian now and haven’t had beef rendang in a while (1.5 years to be exact) and I’ll readily admit that I miss it. So I created the next best option to fill the void in my tummy, improvising a vegetarian/vegan tempeh rendang.

Ingredients for vegetarian tempeh rendang

But first let’s take a step back and quickly talk about how to prepare beef rendang. To prepare for long hours of cooking, you choose chuck or shin with some fat in it to prevent the meat from going tough and dry when done. Marinate the chunks of beef in the spices then lightly fry them till they are browned and sealed. Add coconut milk and other spices and boil it with the meat till the coconut milk evaporates and reduces. As the coconut milk evaporates, the colour of the mixture darkens. You add in the dried coconut and turn up the heat to fry the meat in its own oil. Voila! You have a mouthwatering dry beef curry waiting for you to enjoy. And all that took was approximately 4 hours of your day.

It’s a little different for tempeh rendang. I didn’t want my tempeh to get too soggy so I fried all the spices and boiled the coconut milk with the spices until the mixture reduced. Only then did I add the tempeh and fry off the rest of the liquid as usual.

You’ll need these ingredients

  • 2 cakes of tempeh (500g)
  • 2 stalks of lemongrass
  • 4 large kaffir lime leaves
  • 2 cups coconut milk
  • 1 tsp coriander powder
  • 1 tsp gula melaka
  • 2/3 cup dessicated coconut
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 1 lime

For the rempah

  • 4 shallots
  • 1 inch galangal
  • 1 inch ginger
  • 1 inch turmeric
  • 4 dried chillis
  • 6 cloves of garlic

Steps

1. In a food processor or mortar and pestle, process all rempah ingredients until you get a rough paste. You’ll be cooking this for a long time, so it doesn’t have to be smooth as silk.

Vegetarian tempeh rendang rempah

2. Chop off all but the lowest third of the lemongrass stalks and bruise them with the back of a knife.

3. Heat some oil in a large heavy pot and fry the rempah and coriander powder for about 5 mins. Add bruised lemongrass stalks, kaffir lime leaves and continue frying briefly for about 3 minutes.

4. Add coconut milk and cinnamon stick and simmer on medium heat.

5. Meanwhile, cut tempeh into approximately 1 inch cubes. Sear tempeh in a pan until the surfaces are golden-brown.

6. When the liquid has reduced to about a quarter of the original amount, add in the tempeh chunks and dessicated coconut to simmer.

7. Just when the liquid has almost evaporated, add in the palm sugar.

8. Turn up the heat to fry the tempeh until it’s dry and caramelised.

9. Splash the juice of 1 lime over the tempeh.

Pssst…. If you like tempeh as much as I do, try this awesome sambal goreng tempeh recipe too.Leave a comment

Mixed berry jam

by on May 8, 2013, 1 comment

Mixed berry jam and toast

That’s right, I made jam for the first time in my life and it turned out quite nicely. What’s even better was that it was so simple to make that we pretty much winged it the whole time, making ourselves a few jars of this tart mixed berry jam that we’ve been eating with toast for a couple of breakfasts now.

Jam has always been something I buy in a jar from the supermarket without giving much thought at all. It can stay in the fridge for months on end and only emerge occasionally when we have scones (that’d be about once every two years) so suffice it to say that a jar lasts us a really long time. Normally, berry jam doesn’t get me jumping up and down with excitement like cheese, ethnic grocery stores or Singaporean food can, but I found myself growing interested  in having a go at making some. Also both of us developed a fetish for mason jars a while ago so maybe we already had a finger in the make-your-own-jam pie without realising it.

When I ran my jam-making idea by some friends, I got opposing reactions. Some said it was a waste of time because you can get a jar off some supermarket shelf for less than it costs you to make it, while others said that that was totally missing the point and the joys of DIY. I’m totally with the DIY school of thought and furthermore, where would this blog be if we didn’t want to DIY, experiment and get our hands dirty?

Make mixed berry jam at home

So here goes attempt #1 at our simple homemade mixed berry jam. I certainly wish I had a fruit tree in my still non-existent garden that showered me with fruit aplenty, but until that happens I’ll make do with the next best option of using frozen raspberries and mixed berries we already had sitting in the freezer.

Ingredients

  • 3 cups frozen berries
  • 2 cups jam-setting sugar (which contains pectin)
  • Juice of half a lemon

1. In a sauce pan, mash fruit with the back of a fork or using a potato masher.
2. Squeeze in the juice of half a lemon.
3. Cook the mashed fruit until it breaks down. I prefer my jam smoother rather than chunky, so I cook the fruit more.
4. Add sugar and mix well until it’s dissolved.
5. Keep stirring and when the mixture starts to bubble, remove from heat.
6. Spoon into sterilised jars, cover and refrigerate.

Our 3 cups of berries made enough for 3 to 4 jars. We sterilised the jars and tried to seal them as airtight as possible, but shoved them all into the fridge rather than leaving them in the pantry. We’re still experimenting and learning by trial and error, so I’m not 100% certain about my canning methods yet.

One last thing is that after making this jam, I read that others add in a spoonful or more of butter into the jam mixture to improve smoothness and spreadability. We totally winged it and didn’t use any butter so our jam was stickier and thicker in texture than expected but honestly, neither of us minded. When we get to it, we’ll try adding some butter for attempt #2 to see the difference but we’re happy for now.

And on to you now, do you make your own jams or preserves? What types of fruit do you use and what are your tricks for canning?Leave a comment

Cheese of the month: Parmigiano-Reggiano (April 2013)

by on April 29, 2013, 0 comments

Cheese of the week by Raging Cravings

Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese (Parmesan)

Many have tried to mimic it under the more generic French name “Parmesan”, but whether grated, powdered or whole, Parmigiano-Reggiano is the incomparable original Italian hard cheese.

Europeans are great at protecting their cultural heritage, and we’re thankful they did with this one. Parmigiano-Reggiano is named for two of the five northern Italian provinces in which it can be legally made, Parma and Reggio-Emilia. And out of their old traditions has come a modern well-regulated cheesemaking process that produces high quality Reggiano. Any old hack can make sparkling wine, but champagne comes from Champagne. Only the Scottish can truly make Scotch. And it’s not Parmigiano if it’s not from Parma.

Parmigiano-Reggiano is made from partially skimmed cow’s milk. The cheesemaker uses a mix of that morning’s fresh raw milk and milk from the previous night where much of the cream has already separated. The whole process is heavily regulated, and for a cheese to call itself Parmigiano-Reggiano each wheel must be approved by an inspector from the Parmigiano Reggiano “Consorzio” (or Consortium). The main criteria are that:

  1. Cows must be fed only grass or hay, and mostly local grass or hay
  2. The milk must be a mix of the skimmed previous evening milk and morning milk
  3. The wheels must be a characteristic convex cylindrical shape and weigh at least 30kg (big wheels make the cheese a bit more moist)
  4. The inspector must approve each wheel individually, armed with a hammer to suss out hollow points in a bad one
  5. The wheel must mature for at least 12 months (but usually 24 months)

Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese (parmesan)

You know a good Parmigiano-Reggiano by looking for little white crystals in the mix. These crystals form during the long aging process, so a young cheese won’t have them. And although “parmesans” aren’t the most aromatic cheeses, you’ll know a good Parmagiano-Reggiano when you smell it.

Grating Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

We can get carried away by the traditions and cultures that surround Parmigiano-Reggiano, but at the end of the day it’s the taste that matters. Parmigiano packs a lot of punch in very little mass, and makes for lots of flavuor that doesn’t weigh down a dish. For that reason, it’s great as a condiment – sprinkle a little Parmigiano on pasta or a salad and you have a whole new dish. We also like to use a good portion of it when we make our Brazilian pão de queijo so our cheese bread is powerfully cheesy, but still light and fluffy.Leave a comment