On Tuesday, Amy and I made some delicious fermented goodies. We had ordered some tempeh starters, and I got myself a natto culture from GEM Cultures, and we set about soaking soybeans the night before for the great fermentation experiment.
Tempeh is a pretty popular type of fermented soybean product that originated in Indonesia some time ago. It’s easy to find at places like Whole Foods, and it’s both versatile and tasty. It’s something of a meat substitute with its protein power, plus it has other valuable nutrients. The actual tempeh is something of a brick or cake of cracked soybeans inoculated with a Rhizopus bacteria culture. After boiling the soybeans, you simply stir in the starter, and then pack either a glass or stainless steel baking sheet (or plastic bags) with the beans. After sitting for a full day at 85 degrees, you have tempeh ready to be cooked and eaten. Here’s what our final product looked like:
As you can see, it’s pretty heavy on the mold, but it’s totally fine to eat! Mmm… mold… Don’t be put off by its appearances. (Tempeh that ferments in sealed plastic bags doesn’t develop a moldy upper crust like that…)
The natto was my own baby experiment. Thomas and I had attempted to make it a few weeks ago, but we were unsuccessful. This time, I kept a closer eye on the temperature and made some finer adjustments, and the starter was successful.
Now, how to describe natto… Every culture seems to have its own rather, well, unique (or disgusting?) food product unlike anything else from the outside. Natto is Japan’s version of that all star national food. It’s a type of fermented soybean inoculated with bacillus natto, resulting in a rather slimy, wispy soybean that smells something like ammonia. Most people are turned off by it. It’s an acquired taste, to say the least. I myself get a kick out of the sheer individuality (moreso than the taste, maybe) of the natto, with its incredible strings and wisps. When you pick up the natto off a plate, the beans leave long trails of something that looks like spider webs that get stuck to your fork and chin. We have taken to calling it “snotto” around the food co-op due to its appearance and taste. Anyway, it’s a pretty wild food, and nothing short of unique (or revolting, some might say). Here’s what it looks like:
I actually think the natto could have done with even more wisps and stringiness, but there’s always next time to improve my technique and method…
Fermenting is fun!
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