Tempeh is a traditional Indonesian food, which is made by fermenting soybeans with a starter culture. It is becoming popular all over the world due to its health benefits as it is a great source of protein and vitamin B-12. Tempeh is a healthy, high-quality protein source that contains all essential amino acids for growth. Remember soy protein is very good quality protein, and comes without saturated fat and cholesterol.
Compared with tofu, tempeh is still relatively difficult to buy in Denmark and it is expensive. Luckily it is fairly easy to make your own tempeh and it tastes much better than store bought one. High quality tempeh has a mild “mushroomy” or “nutty” aroma, and slices easily without crumbling. Tempeh is definitely a “star” in my kitchen.
INGREDIENTS:
• 400 gr dry soy beans
• 4 Tbsp. vinegar
• 3/4 tsp. starter culture
Getting good quality organic soya beans is a must. Not only it is healthier, it cooks easily and it becomes more creamy.
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Soak the beans overnight at least 10 hours.
- Rinse the beans and boil them in fresh water in medium heat. Soybeans takes from 30 minutes to1 hour to cook. It is therefore important to check the doneness after 30 minutes.
- Discard the cooking water and dry the beans by setting over low heat in the pot to evaporate the water off the beans. It is important that all the water is gone but be careful not to dry out the beans.
- Place the beans in a bowl add the vinegar and mix well.
- Allow the beans to cool to a lukewarm temperature 35 Celsius degrees.
- Add the tempeh starter and mix well to evenly distribute the starter in the beans.
- Place the beans in plastic bags with needle-size holes poked through. (I wash and reuse my plastic bags). Fold the bags and distribute them evenly.
- Place the bags between trays and then place them in the oven with only lights turned on for 12 hours.
- Check the beans after 12 hours. At this point in the process the fermentation will cause the beans to generate their own heat so you should remove them from the oven and place them in a warm place for the next 36-48 hours.
- After 36 to 48 hours, when the beans have become a single mass held together by the white spores, the tempeh is ready to cut and divide in to smaller portions to be refrigerated/freezed.
Tempeh has to be cooked before consuming. It can be baked, broiled, grilled, sautéed, pan or deep-fried. Try adding tempeh to a stir-fry instead of tofu or use it as a replacement for ground beef, crumble, finely chop it.
I like to shallow fry tempeh slices until golden brown and marinate them with soya sauce, garlic and ginger before frying further until they are caramelised.
