How To Make Tempe Menjes

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Tempe menjes or also known as tempe gembus is made from soy bean and very popular in Java island.

In my hometown, Surabaya,  it’s  popular as tempe Menjes and usually coated with spiced flour then fried.  The different with other tempe, this one is made from left over soy bean – called ‘ampas tahu‘, which is from making tofu in Indonesia. Or can be also from making soy bean milk, ‘ampas susu kedelai’.  So instead of throwing it away, we can make something good out of it.  And the price is cheaper compared to the other tempe, maybe because it is made from a waste.

A contact  in facebook tell me how to make tofu and then I decided to give it a try so that I can use the left over to make tempe menjes. For making tofu, I used 250 g soy bean and in the end I got almost 500 g of ampas tahu.

The process of making tempe menjes is almost the same as making tempe.

Ingredients

500 g ampas tahu* or ampas susu kedelai

1 tea spoon ragi tempe Raprima

Directions

1. Leave ampas tahu for a night so it will dry. Next day,  squeeze to break the it into crumbs then steam for 30 minutes.

2. Put ampas tahu in a cooking pot and drain off the water on medium heat for a few minutes and until it’s dry.

3. Prepare wide pan for baking, put clean towel over it and spread ampas tahu there to cool off,  leave it for sometime. During this process, avoid touching it  with hands, use clean tool instead.

4. When it is already dry and cold (but not too cold, is better), sprinkle 1 teaspoon of Tempe starter. Mix with a clean spoon for about 1 minute to distribute the Tempe starter evenly.

5. Take plastic bags (I use plastic bag size 15X 26 cm with sealed).  Press them flat, making sure that the total thickness of the beans is max 3 cm. Then perforate them with holes at adistance of about 1 cm by using a clean satay skewer or a thick but sharp needle. This will allow the mould to breathe.

6. Place the packed  in an incubator at 30°C or at a warm place for about 36-48 hours which the Tempe fermentation takes place. I put them on the top of oven tray then store them on the top of my kitchen cupboard. The temperature in the house is about  24 C so I have to wrap it using a clean towel to make warmer so the fermentation will work. If the room temperature is higher, reduce the usage of starter.

7. After 36 hours the container should be filled completely with white mycelium and the entire contents can be lifted out as a whole piece.

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