
The hardest part of making tempeh is separating the hulls (skin) from the soybeans. That part could take up hours and mess up my kitchen. I've tried several possible ways to get the beans skinless, but none was easy. It could be just me because I never found any complaint from all tempe making website I read. I am wondering how people in my country do that part.
Dehulling the bean is important for the fermentation. If there are beans with hulls intact, the yeast can't infiltrate the membrane, thus the fermentation isn't perfect. This causes the tempeh to be fragile, not solid like what tempeh should be.
I suddenly remember that I like to buy skinless mung bean for
bakpao (Baozi/Chinese bun) filling. If there are machines to un-skin tiny mung beans, there had to be one for soybean. Imagine how many people out there need dehulled soybeans for soymilk. Then I search for dehulled soybeans, and I was right. They existed! I tried to find legume distributors that sold those but found ones sell for industries only and none had a store close to our place.

Sunday noon after lunch, hubby and I went to a store that sold organic stuffs in bulk. They didn't have dehulled soybeans, but beside the soybean's box, there was a box of split-skinless green peas. Aha! I had to give it a try. Hubby couldn't understand my obsession of making tempeh, but he supported me anyway (and ready to laugh if it wasn't successful).
I started making the tempeh on Tuesday night. On Wednesday noon, there was no sign of mold on the peas. I started to get worried when I checked my tempeh at around 3 p.m on Wednesday. I was kinda paranoia with overfermented tempeh (read
this entry) so I checked this one too often. Then the next day, woohoo...I had three packs of (literary) green tempeh! I baked one pack for dinner wanted to know how it tasted. It tasted like peas with tempeh smell.
What other legumes should I try for my next tempeh?