Something simple and fun. We love our soybean cake (or “tempeh” in Indonesian language). It can be sliced as thinly as potato chips, or thick chunky slices. Almost always dunked into some kind of sweet and spicy sauce.
This is prepared the same way all over the country. On street vendor’s food carts, traditional Indonesian eateries, fancy fusion restaurants. Can be eaten as appetizers, snacks or even as part of many main course dishes.
How to deep fry soybean cake
- Get one block of soybean fermented cake, slice accordingly.
- Sprinkle some salt on the soybean cake slices
- Heat one cup of oil in a small frying pan.
When you can spot some smoke coming out of the surface of the heated oil, the oil is ready to take in the soybean cake.
Deep fry in batches till brown and slightly dry. One minute each side is plenty.
How to prepare spicy chili and soy dip
- 1/3 cup (30 gr) Thai green small chili
- 1 1/2 tablespoons white sugar
- Using mortal & pestle, grind both ingredients for 3 – 5 minutes.
Mix one teaspoon of the chili paste with three tablespoon of light soy sauce in a bowl.
Set aside the rest of the paste for future use. If refrigerated, the thai chili base paste can last for a couple of weeks. If one teaspoon is too strong / too spicy, reduce the amount of paste or dilute furthermore with soy sauce.