Tempeh cooking 101: Reengineered

Stir fry oil soaked tempeh & cabbage, tofu ... with corn, carrot, and lettuce. 

In my family, tempeh is normally cooked either deep fried or boiled (in gravy like curry). My favorite is of course deep fried, eaten with rice and sambal belacan. In my effort to reduce fat intake, I opted to stir frying instead of deep frying. I then realized how much oil is required to stir fry four by four square inches of tempeh, that is cut into small pieces. A couple of table spoons. Duh. That is 30 m of oil. Otherwise you get either burned tempeh, and if you added water early to prevent burning, you get soggy tempeh.

Grilled Tempeh, rice and veges of bitter gourd and carrot

Sometimes, my late mom did something out of ordinary, regarding tempeh cooking. One is by grilling it in open fire. I copied that by grilling in my toaster oven. It worked!!! She never added anything on the tenpeh. I sometime brushes some oil on it to get it crispier. Perhaps not necessary, next time will grill it longer. Soybean is already rich in oil. Yup, did all that food analysis way back in school in 1980. Man, that was so long ago.


Happy tempeh eating.

Alternative Foodie

Bread: Where did we go wrong?

Home made honey oat bread

My introduction to bread on a regular basis was at the boarding school I went, at 16. White and taste horrible. It was usually served with margerine and jams, and  one half-boiled egg, every other day, at breakfast time. My bread had always been white untill my 3rd year of undergrad, the year I started my course in food science and nutrition. Way back in 1979. Ooh man! It was then I found out that there were such thing as breads made from whole wheat, and other grains. I had never seen one, way back then.

The first thar came on the market was brown bread,  called roti jagong (corn bread, but not the corn bread, but bread that were partly made of whole wheat and may be corn meals). This so called roti jagong, even to this presently, some still as bread for the diabetics. Now another related history, way way back in my childhood days. early teen (70s), when someone is diagnosed with diabetes, the two food items forbidden/under strict control then were rice & sugar. Might be an overly simplified dietary guide, but not too far off from what we know today, in controlling blood sugar level.

Back to bread; today our breads are of endless variety. Today too, many weight control, health related issues are being associated with grain intakes especially as bread. Apart from bread being mainly made of wheat san nutrient except carbodydrate, even in so called whole wheat bread, and apart from food arlergies gluten, to my view, bread is not bad. That bread is getting a bad rap just as I begin to love eating bread is so not fair!!!

Bread ingredient: Bleached all purpose flour, salt water, yeast, milk, eggs, oil ... oat, honey?

So, the oat and honey is only a small portion of bread ingredient. I must say that this home made bread is heavenly. The next step is to change our bread ingredients to at least unbleached flour, and better still of whole meal, be it wheat or corn. And certainly, no more the dreaded white bread of my student days on the dining table.

AMEEN

Alternative Foodie

Rice included

Rice, sambal belacan with pieces of lemon & tomatoes,
and deep fried fresh water salted fish.

It is never going to be a total change of diet in the house of alternative foodie, rice will always have a place. May hopefully not revert to platefuls as the way I would love to eat my rice, especially when there are ulam (raw salad, Malay style) and sambal belacan to accompany my boiled polished white rice!!! Moderation is a nice word, just a word, mostly ignored while the all out eat urge took over. Just once in a while these days. Alhamdullilah.

Otherwise rice is often served as half cup portion mixed with raw vegetables like bitter gourd and tomatoes, or carrot, topped with  tempeh  and more vegetables.

Bitter gourd is one of the usual ulam eaten with rice among Malaysian, although it is can also be cooked in many ways. My almost no fail inclusion of bitter gourd with my rice arises from the knowledge that it can prevent the quick rise of blood sugar level from eating polished rice. As well bitter gourd being one food item eaten frequently by the Okinawan. Especially those (close to be) centenarian Okinawans. Why not right?

For now. Goodnight folks.
I better get some sleep. This renewed interest with blogging can get one so carried away.

Sweet drearm
Alternative foodie

Rooted in nutty beans and seeds with lots of greens

This is another food blog as though there is not enough what is already in cyberspace. Like I do not already had blogs that some I have forgotten how to access them. But I do like Mr Bean (the series) and beans in a pot dishes. At my age, eating beans or for that matter rice itself makes a good living with gas. Ooh man. We are nuts. No no not just being nutty figuratively, but loving nuts and seeds as food too. For example, yesterday I had a clear beans and lentils soup with cubes of sweet potato. Yumms. This morning, breakfast was quinoa salad and boiled sweet potatoes. I'm born and breed a rice eater right in the middle of the paddy field that dad owned  in an area he participated in turning a virgin jungle into one of the now famous Malaysian rice bowl. Sekinchan, Selangor. And these days I'm venturing away from eating rice by the platefuls. A new blog must accompany this epic transformation!!!

Beans, lentils, mushrooms and sweet potato soup

Thus another blog road is taken, of note scribles, written on digital paper, on thought of daily foods, exotic or otherwise; seen for its nutritional and health contribution, presented again as daily meals in total or modified to suit my palate. Nah. It is more about my taste being modified to suit my preference for super fast and easy easy food prep. Still there will be write up on food prep that are true to tradition, that are nutritious and healthful with their yummy factor intact.

Quinoa salad and boiled sweet potato

Still this blog will not be just about food but of life as a whole. A minimalist simple life I aspire to have.

It will be a road well taken. InsaAllah.

For now.
Happy Chinese New Year Folks
and save travels to whichever destinations you are heading this festive season

Alternative Foodie
p/s
My son remarked, "But you already have blogs mom. Who is going to read them anyway." {{After I jubilantly announced to him I have a new blog}} "May be just your friends or whoever is stalking us?" Uuh uh my son the pragmatic man!!!