Читать книгу Fresh and Wild Cookbook: A Real Food Adventure - Ysanne Spevack - Страница 37

Tempeh (pronounced tem-pay is an Indonesian delicacy made out of fermented soy beans. Local cooks boil up soy beans, add a bacterial culture, press the mixture into blocks and leave it to ferment. The process sounds kinda revolting, until you compare the process to Western cheese-making techniques. Believe me – it’s gorgeous stuff.

Tempeh has a rich mushroom-like flavour that is a million miles away from the blandness of tofu.

And tempeh contains about twenty times as many isoflavones as tofu, which are the natural substances that give soy foods their anti-cancer properties and help promote a healthy heart. In this recipe it is steam-fried in oils and tamari, but it is equally at home in anything from a bolognaise-style sauce to a curry.

Look for it in the fridge, plain, marinated or with added flavours, in the freezer, or in jars in the Japanese section of the store with sea vegetables or in sauces. I keep some in the house at all times, ready for super-quick meals, either for lunch or dinner. Tempeh’s natural flavour is enhanced by tsuyu, a shoyu-based brown liquid made with concentrated shiitake mushrooms.

Alfalfa is an Arabic word meaning ‘father of all foods’. If you let the sprouts grow big, they’ll become deep-rooting bushy plants. Fat chance of that happening though, because once you discover these curly little sprouts they’ll be straight in your sandwich.

Alfalfa sprouts are sold in bags in the fresh produce display, plus the dried starter seeds can be found in paper packets next to the pulses. Alfalfa sprouts contain five of the eight essential amino acids, making them a nutritionally balanced food. They’ve also got lots of trace minerals that you won’t get from many other foods, plus a whole bunch of vitamins, including lots of stress-busting B vitamins. They help your body’s immune system, aiding natural detoxification of the blood and helping the general digestive process. And they’re crunchy, too! Check out the recipe on page 262 for Essene Bread, where you’ll find the method for sprouting your own seeds.