Kakiage with Tempeh

Kakiage dinner I had last night Do you know what Tempeh is? I had heard about it, but never actually seen one until I found this in a nearby supermarket the other day. Temphe Now I learned that this is a very nutritious food originally from Indonesia, and it has the nutrition that is similar to our natto. Then it must be a blessing for me, because I’m not crazy about the slimy feel of natto, but want to benefit from its excellent nutrition. I took a bite of the temphe, and I liked it better than natto. OK, now..... what could be a quick and easy way to try this new ingredient? On the other hand, I had some leaves of daikon (Japanese horseradish?) my colleague gave me last week. Daikon leaves This is a local thing. Elder people in small farming villages often use daikon leaves for cooking (or feed chickens with them), but I don’t think it’s common in big cities. Anyway, I like mixing minced and seasoned daikon leaves with cooked rice, so that would be my choice for supper. Then I thought about all the leftovers in my kitchen, and finally decided to make Kakiage (a kind of tempura) with the tempeh. When you make kakiage, you deep-fry almost any kind of shredded vegetables and diced seafood in thin batter. (Actually this can be a good fridge-cleaning recipe :P ) So I prepared the daikon leaves first. I washed and minced them, fried them with dried baby fish in a little veg. oil and sesame oil, then seasoned with salt, sake, soy sauce and added white sesame seeds. Then I mixed it with cooked rice, and let them cool. Next, I shredded leftover carrots, a sweet potato, a shiitake mushroom and the tempeh, and made kakiage. It was a good meal, except I didn’t taste the tempeh in the kakiage very much. Next time, I might try frying tempeh alone, with cheese or something. Anyway, I’m 100% sure that exploring new tempeh recipes will be so much fun.