Accompaniments for not-quite-stale bread
I take after both of my parents. But when it came to food, I have always assumed that I was more like my father. I can’t tell you what he liked to snack on, or what his favorite food was, but I think that he loved to eat like I do. My mother on the other hand, sees food as a necessity. The pleasure of it is only supplementary. Her nutritionally balanced meals take 3 times a day in moderate portions with no seconds servings, or snacks in between. She also happens to be picky and difficult to please, even though she’s too polite to ever not compliment whatever is offered to her. So at home, she would only cook things that are beneficial in some how, in a minimal way (or at least as minimal as possible in Korean cooking) using carefully selected ingredients.
Since the passing of my dear grandmother a few days ago, I’ve been thinking often about my mother, and our relationship. The more I age, the more of my mother I am seeing myself in unpredictable ways, and this time, I was looking into this extra hippie- looking plate I’ve concocted.
I wanted to finish off the loaf of bread before it went stale, and I wanted something hardy to go with it. Sweet potatoes were readily available, so before I even made up my mind on what to make of them, I chopped and boiled them. I’ve wanted to make a marinated tempeh dish since I saw this delicious picture on 101 cookbooks back in January. I improvised by making the sweet potatoes and the tempeh made into a single dish.
As I was slowly enjoying my lunch in complacence, I imagined myself in my mother’s place, cooking for her self, eating alone. Because of the vastly different surroundings that have shaped us respectively, we naturally work with different ingredients, but I imagined that if she was in my place, at my age, right now, maybe she would be enjoying this too. Finding the orange and white to be a bit too heavy and assembling a last minute salad to go with the whole thing. And like her, I was doing this out of necessity. This is how I would sustain myself, and I was enjoying it because it was a necessity. And I cook for myself, because like her, I too am picky and somewhat difficult to please. I don’t know if habits are inherited or learned, but I’m thankful.
Pan-Glazed Tempeh with Sweet Potatoes
- Chop and boil some sweet potatoes.
- While the potatoes are boiling, mix a small amount of sweet condiment- BBQ sauce, fruit preserve, whatever + grated ginger/garlic/onions + orange juice + soysauce +whateve herbs you like.
- Cut some tempeh, and check on the sweet potatoes. The potatoes should be softened, but not mushy. Take out of the pan, strain and set in cold water.
- In the pot, heat some oil, and add the tempeh and fry until golden. Pour the sauce mixture and simmer until thickened. Add the sweet potatoes back in the pot to heat and distribute some of the sauce, and mix in some chopped scallions at the last minute.
