T is for thunder and lightning
I think I’ve reached a stage where my brain is raddled, between virus and thunderstorms. At least it gives me an excuse for ingredients from a different part of the alphabet.
tamarind (tamarindus indica) Indonesian and Malay asam or asam Java, Thai mak kam also known as Indian date. Gives a tangy, fruity flavour to whatever you cook.
taro (colocasia esculenta var antiquorum)- Indonesian singkong - you can cook this like potato or like sweet potato. I love it boiled in coconut milk with just a bit of pandan leaf for scent.
tauco - an Indonesian basic ingredient made of soy beans. This is very salty - crush the beans then use them in sauces. It is either the same or very similar to the bottled black and yellow beans that you find in Chinese cuisine.
tempe - a sort of fermented cake (savoury) made of soy beans. It fries up brilliantly with nutmeg, shallots and chili sauce, and is handy in lots of Indonesian dishes.
thyme - thymus vulgaris is the common (or vulgar variety). Turkish kekik. Makes a good antiseptic as well as being handy to cook with.
tofu - or tahu, but never tempe, the Japanese names for the different varieties of tofu are: kinugoshi no tofu - silk-strained, the finest grade; momengoshi no tofu, the cotton or ordinary variety that crumbles less easily and is good in sukiyaki. Silken tofu is the very fine stuff, cotton tofu is the more frequently found coarser stuff (named after the original way of making them which involved cloth filters, it really now refers to a texture). Nigari is what makes it set. I mostly use silken tofu for Japanese cooking (unless the recipe specifies a coarser tofu) and the other for everything else. Silken tofu is magic in misoshiru (soybean soup) and ordinary tofu deep fries beautifully (after which you stuff it with cucumber, bean shoots and sweet chilli sauce if you are wise).
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