Tempeh in Indonesia

By Barrie | September 9th, 2007 | 1 Comment »

Wherever you go in Indonesia, you will almost always be able to find some variety of tempe. There is, among others, tempe gembus, which is made from the sediment left over from the tofu-making process, and tempe benguk, made from the benguk bean. But the most popular and well known tempe is that made from soybeans as gastronome and epicurean el supremo Suryatini N. Ganie explains.

Surely you have seen tempe in traditional markets, supermarkets or other places where they sell traditional foods. Tempe is usually molded into rectangular blocks that appear to be covered in a whitish “blanket” of what looks like shredded cotton, which is caused by fermentation.

Sometimes tempe is wrapped in banana leaves, which is the most traditional wrapping, or plastic.

Tempe is a very interesting food that can be used as an ingredient in many interesting dishes, snacks and even cakes.

Tempe is said to be a Javanese invention and has already gone worldwide in the culinary sense. As a guest lecturer in Townsville, Australia, many years ago, I wanted the students to make a dish from tempe and asked whether they knew or had heard of it.

The whole class was amused and answered that they had already tasted fried tempe.

But like many other foods, traditionally made tempe has undergone many changes.

The most traditional way of preparing tempe is to slice it into pieces and season it with some salt and ground coriander, then fry it to accompany a staple.

After it was discovered that tempe had excellent nutritional value, it became more widely consumed.

Tempe forms the basic ingredient of many tasty dishes. For example, one can make a tempe loaf, American style; add it to minced meat for a sauce Bolognaise with tempe cubes for spaghetti; or can prepare a Chinese Sichuan-style hot tempe stir-fry.

As a product of fermentation, tempe requires a fungus to be processed. The physical quality of tempe is determined on the kind of fungus used, such as the Rhizopus oligosporus, which is always found in good quality tempe.

The spores of this fungus develop fast and become black in color when excessively exposed to air. Another fermentation fungus that is also used in quality tempe is the Rhizopus oryze fungus, which takes longer to develop, but will still end up white in color.

One of the so-called “white” tempe products is the renowned Malang tempe.

Intensive research by nutritionists has found that tempe made from soybeans has many healthy characteristics and is an excellent source of protein.

Research analysis of tempe found that in a 100 g piece of tempe made from soybeans, there were 149 calories, 18.3 g of protein, 4.0 g of fat, 12.7 g in carbohydrates, 129 mg of calcium, 154 mg of phosphor, 10.0 mg of iron, 50 SI of vitamin A, 0.17 mg of vitamin B1 and 64.0 g of water.

One of the most important components of tempe is its high vitamin B-12 and fiber content. Tempe from soybeans can also reduce cholesterol (Prof. C. R. Sirtori, Milan, Italy).

Tempe made from soybeans is great to add to your daily meals, though some people are still of the opinion that because of its relatively cheap price, tempe is not of good quality — and that people who consume it are manusia tempe, meaning somebody with poor health.

On the contrary, most manusia tempe, or people who regularly consume tempe, are in good health. As was the case with my late gardener. He consumed tempe cooked the traditional way on a daily basis. At over 70 years of age he still worked from early in the mornings until the evenings and became “as old as Methusalem“.

Suryatini N. Ganie