Thai-Style Tempeh and Asparagus

I cooked this on September 22, 2008.   I've made something similar a couple of times since, but I should really revisit this one this spring.   My comment when I wrote down the recipe:  "Tastes like summer."

Tempeh is one of the more interesting meat substitute type things.   Mostly (to me) due to the fact that it has some texture that tofu really can't reproduce.  

Remember that this is stir-fry, so have everything chopped up on a board next to the stove, ready to shove into the wok at a moment's notice.
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4oz tempeh

Marinade:
1/2t lime - juice
1/2t sesame oil
1T soy sauce
1T rice wine vinegar
1t hoisin sauce

Cut tempeh into sticks and marinate for at least 15 minutes, turning occasionally.

Sauce:
Outer part of the lower section of lemon grass stalk
1/4 veggie boullion cube
1/4 cup hot water
1T soy sauce
1T rice wine vinegar
1/2t sesame oil
1/2t lime -juice
1 1/2 t sugar
1/2 t ground white pepper

Flavor veggies:
1 thumb-sized knob of ginger, minced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 small thai hot pepper, diced
The heart of one lemon grass stalk

Veggies:
1/2 onion, chopped into sticklike pieces
6oz asparagus, after breaking ends off, cut into ~2" pieces
3 stalks of bok choy, leaves cut into 3" squares, stalks cut into piece of a similar size to the asparagus

finishing:
1/3 cup unsalted dry roasted cashews
2t of cornstarch in 2T of cold water, stirred up.

Put 1T of walnut oil (I thought I was buying peanut) into a wok, and got it hot. Added the marinated tempeh to the hot oil, and let it sit while I shook the pan around some, to keep it from sticking. After a minute or two, I turned the tempeh over and let
it cook for another minute or two, so it would get a nice little crust on both sides. It absorbed almost all of the oil, and I let it cook mostly dry for another 30-45 seconds before dumping it out to a rack. I added another tablespoon of walnut oil and got it hot, and then added all of the flavoring vegetables and stirred them around in the oil for 10-15 seconds (until they were fragrant, i.e. until the pepper made me cough) before adding the onion and bock choy stalks. I stir-fried that until the onions turned translucent, maybe a minute and a half, and then added the asparagus and stir-fried that for another minute and a half before returning the tempeh and adding the bok choy leaves. I continued to cook everything just until the leaves started to wilt, and added the sauce and cashews and let it cook for another minute. Then I re-stirred and added the cornstarch mixture and cooked for another 30 seconds before pulling it off of the heat.

Serve over brown rice.