Last week, the students at Klahre House had a hands-on lesson on how to make tempeh. Many people have never even heard of tempeh. According to Wikipedia, tempeh “is a traditional soy product originally from Indonesia. It is made by a natural culturing and controlled fermentation process that binds soybeans into a cake form, similar to a very firm vegetarian burger patty.”
As a vegetarian, I have enjoyed tempeh for many years, but I never knew how to make it. We were so pleased to have Seth Tibbott, CEO of Turtle Island Foods, based here in Hood River, come to show the students how to make it. What a process! From the Turtle Island Foods website, here’s a description of the long process:
It is made by cooking and dehulling grains and inoculating them with a culture of mold called Rhizopus oligosporus. The product is then incubated overnight at the tropical temperature of 88° F. During this time the beans and/or grains are covered with a thick, white mat of mycelia that binds them together into a solid cake. After this process is finished (about 24 hours) the tempeh is then steamed to make it ready to eat.
We are grateful to community volunteers like Seth, who take time to pass on their knowledge to our students. The students were interested and showed it; they even learned how to say Rhizopus oligosporus. Here are some photos:
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