TEMPEH

Ingredients:

• Any kind of pulses

• Mold: Rhizopus oligosporus

• You can add other ingredients for a funky flavour (seed, cereals, veggies….)

Materials:

• Fermentation chamber to control temperature and humidity

• Container

• Teatowels

Preparation:

1. Soak the pulses (2 days)

2. Remove the skin

3. Cook it in water (for the consistency, you need to be able to squeeze them between thumb and pinky finger)

4. If you add veggies they must be cooked but firm

5. Wait for everything to cool down

6. If too humid add flour

7. Mix your substrate with the spores (check the quantity on the package depending on the weight)

8. Vessel for fermentation:

   1. Put in leaves (fig leaves, for example) do a wrap and close with string on top and below, max 3cm in diameter

   2. Put in small plastic bags (freezer bags) and add holes on the surface

   3. Put in a container (no more than 3cm thick) with a lid with holes

9. Put in the fermentation chamber, NO TOUCHING:

   1. Temperature: 28-35°C

   2. Humidity: 80-90%

   3. Time: 25h-48h

   4. Be mindfull… they are gonna try to suicide themself with overheating, try to mantain the temperature under 40°C

10. Freeze it if you’re looking for a long storage

11. Cut in slices and after an optional marinade, cook before eating.

Suggestions for other recipes:

Put in marinade for 1 or 2h at RT or overnight in the fridge. Example of marinade: water, salt, shoyu, garlic, spices, bay leaves, rosemary. Then cook with oil.

Cook with tomatoes, garlic, sage leaf.

Fermentation tips:

The Tempeh mycelium is white and spores are black. The Tempeh should be white everywhere if well mycelized but if it gets black here and there it is also cool, Rhizopus is just going on with his metabolism.

If it smells weird or if the tempeh is slimy, discard it! It’s gonna feed the compost.