And if you are asking yourself “what’s a Mummer?” Well, a mummer is anyone who belongs to one of the Philadelphia New Years clubs that compete in the annual Philadelphia Mummers Parade. You can check out this video to get a better idea of a much more typical Mummer situation. Enjoy!

]]> http://cabinessenceblog.wordpress.com/2011/01/13/happy-new-year/feed/ 0 Jon & Amy http://cabinessenceblog.wordpress.com/2011/01/02/2010-in-review/ http://cabinessenceblog.wordpress.com/2011/01/02/2010-in-review/#comments Sun, 02 Jan 2011 22:54:48 +0000 JCP http://cabinessenceblog.wordpress.com/?p=182 ]]> The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads This blog is doing awesome!.

Crunchy numbers

The Leaning Tower of Pisa has 296 steps to reach the top. This blog was viewed about 1,000 times in 2010. If those were steps, it would have climbed the Leaning Tower of Pisa 3 times

In 2010, there were 18 new posts, not bad for the first year! There were 36 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 9mb. That’s about 3 pictures per month.

The busiest day of the year was May 17th with 54 views. The most popular post that day was a Belated Mother’s Day.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were veggieroadtrip.wordpress.com, facebook.com, itsmysoul.com, slashingtongue.com, and obama-scandal-exposed.co.cc.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for using agave in kombucha, bread and puppet glover, bread and puppet theater, farming field recording, and leek pesto.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

a Belated Mother’s Day May 2010

VeGHEEn? May 2010

Our Essence April 2010

Bread & Puppet Begins! July 2010

Photos April 2010

Kinpira (金平, 金平^?) is a Japanese cooking style that can be summarised as a technique of “sauté and simmer”. It is commonly used to cook root vegetables such as carrot, burdock and lotus root, seaweeds such as arame and hijiki and other foods including tofu and wheat gluten (namafu),and even meat.

This is Amy’s version of “Kinpira Gobo” which is what carrot and burdock Kinpira is typically called in Japan. Both the carrot and burdock are from our gardens!!!

Clean carrots and burdock and cut into matchsticks.

Saute burdock in a little toasted sesame oil for 2-3 minutes.

Put carrot on top of burdock in pan and add enough water to cover the burdock.

Cover and simmer for 5-10 minutes.

Uncover and add a little soy sauce and simmer until liquid has evaporated.

Top with toasted sesame seeds.

Enjoy!

Onto the process!

I start out with 5 cups of whole soy beans. This would be the only difficult process for someone who doesn’t have a grain mill. The whole beans need to be cracked or split then hulled. An easy way around this would be to purchase already split and hulled soy beans.

So after the beans are cracked I need to start removing the hulls.

This process of removing the hulls is called winnowing. By tossing the cracked beans in the air wind blows away the lighter chaff, while the heavier grains fall back down for recovery. This will remove a lot of the hulls but not all.

The next step is to rinse the beans. I transfer the beans to a large pot, fill it up with cold water, agitate the beans and then pour off the water. I do this several times until the water becomes pretty clear. This will remove any dust or dirt in the beans as well as more hulls (the hulls float to the top).

The next step is to let the beans soak in water overnight (I have also skipped this step without noticing any difference in the final product). After soaking, drain the water and fill up the pot with fresh water.

With the beans covered with fresh water bring it to a simmer on your stove top. You will need to simmer the beans for about 45 minutes until they reach a tender consistency (not mushy, still firm but edible). While the beans are simmering you will also need to stand by to be able to skim foam from the top. This process will also bring left over hulls to the surface to be removed.

Before your beans are finished you will need to get a few things ready for the next steps…

Have your tempeh starter ready. This starter was bought from tempehonline.com

Have some vinegar ready. I use apple cider vinegar.

Lay a towel out on a large flat surface.

The beans are then removed from the stove top and the hot water is strained off through a large colander. Do not rinse. You want the beans to retain some heat through the next steps so it is a good idea to work swiftly through these next steps…

Dump the beans from the colander onto the towel and spread around to remove any excess water. Using the towel as a funnel, return the beans to the dry pot.

For this recipe (5 cups) I then add 2 tablespoons of vinegar, mix in well. Then add 2 tea spoons of the tempeh starter and stir well to evenly distribute the spores throughout the beans.

You should have your containers for molding ready. Some people use plastic bags with holes poked in them. Other use Tupperware or baking dishes that will be covered with wax paper or foil with holes poked in it. I am using these Pyrex storage containers.

I fill the Pyrex containers with the inoculated beans and firmly press them down into the mold.

I lay the lids lightly on top to still allow air to get into the container and move them into the oven to incubate. I am simply using the heat from the oven’s pilot light to incubate the tempeh. It needs to be stored in an environment with a consistent temperature between 83F and 86F for 22-28 hours. Most gas ovens will keep this approximate temperature. After the first half of incubation, the tempeh will start to generate more heat and sometimes I will need to crack the oven door if it gets too hot. It is a good idea to monitor this process with a thermometer.

I usually incubate the tempeh overnight. The following day (about 24 hours) you should notice a white moss evenly covering your soy beans. You now have tempeh! Sometimes you may also see some dark or dry spots (see above photo); this means that part of the beans got too much exposure to the air and dried out a bit.

Congratulations! Now all you need to do is figure out how to prepare it and eat it. May I suggest tempeh reuben? YUM!!!

For more detailed info check out these resources:

Making tempeh on a tray using the waterbath method

]]> http://cabinessenceblog.wordpress.com/2010/10/20/diy-tempeh/feed/ 2 Jon & Amy finished tempeh Soy Beans Mill Winnowing Rinse Skiming Foam and Shells Starter Towel for Drying Straining Drying Adding Vinegar Adding Starter press tempeh mold Incubation Tempeh Reuben w/ Spicy Fries