Tempeh Helper, page 171I'm bummed that this one turned out to be a disappointment for us tonight. However, I'm not willing to completely write it off; I think I might try this again, but with a minor but essential adjustment. The girls had high hopes for the Tempeh Helper, and I did, too - it seemed like such an easy peasy kid-pleaser after a long day out, when it's just me to cook and clean-up since El Hombre is out of town for work.
The problem was the tempeh. There were no instructions to pre-steam or boil the tempeh before crumbling it into the pan for browning, like most tempeh recipes, which I believe removes some of the bitterness that tempeh sometimes has. I kinda wondered about this... was it assumed that I would already know to do this step, and therefore it was not written into the recipe? Or was this step unnecessary for this recipe? I went with the theory that maybe it wasn't necessary; the recipe was, after all, billed as a quick-dump-in-the-pot kind of dish. So, I didn't steam the tempeh before cooking, and I ended up regretting that decision. The tempeh had a fairly bitter bite to it, and neither of the girls even finished their serving. Sad. They suggested maybe "Tofu Helper" would be a better idea.
Someday I might give this another go, with the extra step of pre-steaming the tempeh. Maybe.
Has anyone else tried this recipe? What did you think?
