TEMPEH CULTURE RECIPES

Steps:

• Soak the chickpeas for 12-24 hours. Gently pound the beans with a potato masher, cabbage crusher, or massage by hand to loosen the majority of the hulls.
• Rinse the beans several times to remove hulls.
• Boil the beans for 1 hour to cook.
• Discard the cooking water and dry the beans (either using a towel to pat them dry or setting over low heat in the pot to evaporate the water off the beans). It is important for the beans to be dry to the touch, as too much moisture can ruin the batch.
• Place the beans in a dry bowl and allow the beans to cool to a lukewarm temperature.
• Add the vinegar and tempeh starter and mix well.
• Place the beans in vented containers (or quart-size plastic bags with needle-size holes poked through at 1/2-inch intervals). The beans should be 1 to 2 inches thick.
• Incubate the beans at 88°F for 24 to 48 hours.
• Check the beans after 12 hours . At this point in the process the fermentation will cause the beans to generate their own heat. Remove from heat and cover with a towel for the remainder of the culturing time.
• After 24 hours or so, the white mycelium will start to cover the surface of the beans. Over the next few hours the white mycelium will grow through the beans and will smell nutty.
• After 24 to 48 hours , when the beans have become a single mass held together by the white spores, the tempeh can be refrigerated.