Tempura is a typical Japanese dish that usually consists of seafood and vegetables that have been coated in a thin batter and deep-fried. Tempura originated in the 16th century, when Portuguese Jesuits brought the Western-style cooking method of coating foods with flour and frying.
BATTER
A light batter is made of
1 cup (120 g) all-purpose flour (plain flour)
1 cold large egg (50 g without shell)
200 ml iced water
While the oil is heating up, prepare the tempura batter. First, add 1 large egg (50 g each w/o shell) and 200 ml iced water into a measuring cup or a bowl. Whisk the egg mixture vigorously. Skim off the foam on the surface and discard. Next, sift 1 cup all-purpose flour (plain flour) into a large bowl. Slowly pour the egg mixture into the flour and mix. Do not overmix; it’s okay to leave some lumps.
The recommended flour to water/egg ratio is 1:1.Sometimes baking soda or baking powder is added to make the batter light. Using sparkling water in place of plain water has a similar effect. Tempura does not use breadcrumbs (panko) in the coating. Deep-fried foods that are coated with breadcrumbs are called furai,
No seasonings or salt are added to the batter, or the ingredients, except for some recipes recommending rinsing seafood in salt water before preparation.
Cold batter is absolutely necessary. Make sure all your ingredients (flour, water, egg) and the bowl are cold. Keep your water refrigerated so it’s icy cold. This helps the batter cling to the surface of the ingredients. The batter is often kept cold by placing the bowl inside a larger bowl with ice. Overmixing the batter will activate wheat gluten, which causes the flour mixture to become soft and dough-like when fried. Make and store in the refrigerator until ready to use. Make the batter right before deep-frying to avoid activating the wheat gluten.
Do not overmix the batter – Use chopsticks to mix for 15-20 seconds; gluten will start to form when you mix too much. It’s even helpful to leave some floury lumps in the batter. A lumpy batter contains more air and irregularities, which gives the tempura a light lacy layer that we’re after. Aim for consistency – The finished batter shouldn’t be too thin or too thick. I’ll go for a heavy cream consistency.
Make the batter right before you deep fry to reduce gluten activation.
INGREDIENTS
Seafood: Prawn (In Japan, use Japanese tiger prawns or Kuruma Ebi that are large in size and have a sweet, buttery flavour), squid, scallop, crab, fish (catfish, white fish, cod, haddock, pollock, whiting).
Shrimp (In the US, use black tiger shrimp or jumbo shrimp for tempura).
Straighten the shrimp so it looks gorgeous. This straight shape makes an attractive presentation, but it is also practical. It’s easier to pick up and bite into a straight piece of fried shrimp or dip it into tempura sauce or tartar sauce. A straight ingredient is also easier to coat evenly in the shrimp tempura batter or panko breadcrumbs and fry in the hot oil. \ Here are the basic steps; Peel the shrimp or prawns. Devein with a skewer. The vein runs along the back of the shrimp. Make some slits on the underside. Bend it backward, belly side up, to make it straight. Clean the tails by cutting the tips and remove the dirty liquid. Clean the shrimp with potato starch or cornstarch, then rinse under running water (cold water). Rub with sake and let sit. Discard the liquid (no need to rinse or pat dry the excess moisture with a paper towel). They’re now ready to use.
Vegetables: Starchy root vegetables such as sweet potato, Kabocha squash, and lotus roots are ideal. Avoid vegetables with high water content, such as tomato, celery, and cucumber. They do not hold up the batter well, and the moisture will result in the vegetables getting burnt easily.
Bamboo shoots, bell pepper, broccoli, butternut squash, carrot, eggplant (discard the head of the eggplant, then cut it in half lengthwise. Cut the eggplant lengthwise into very thin (about ⅛ inch or 3 mm) slices, leaving the top 1-inch part intact. Gently press down on the eggplants to fan the slices out), ginger, green beans, lotus root (peeled and precooked); mushrooms (maitake mushroom, shiitake mushroom: remove and discard the stem and make a decorative cut on the cap), onion, pumpkin, potato, sweet potato (without peeling the skin, slice into 5 mm pieces), yam, garlic shoots.
Others. Generally, don’t use meats because they are considered too heavy for tempura dishes. Quail eggs
FRYING
Dry the ingredient with a paper towel; moisture is the enemy for achieving crisp tempura texture.
Oil. Most tempura restaurants use untoasted sesame oil or their own special blend of oil. At home, you can also use a neutral-flavoured oil such as vegetable or rice bran oil or canola oil, and simply add 1 part sesame oil for every 10 parts neutral oil for a deliciously nutty aroma. Use clean, new oil instead of used oil.
Ideally, the oil should fill up to ½ of the pot. The minimum oil you need in a frying pan is 1 inch deep. The more oil you have, the more ability the oil will have to sustain its ideal temperature throughout frying. The ingredient will be well-coated with batter if you sprinkle the flour lightly over it.
Oil temperature for frying – Depending on the ingredients, use 320-350°F (160-180°C). Use a thermometer for precise temperature control, especially if you’re not familiar with deep frying.
You can check the approximate temperature by dropping the batter into the oil.
High temperature (350ºF or 180ºC): the batter will come right back up.
Medium temperature (340ºF or 170ºC): the batter will go to the middle of the pot and come right back.
Low temperature (320ºF or 160ºC): the batter will go to the bottom of the pot and slowly come up.
Cooking times and temperature. Seafood & Meat (350ºF or 180ºC). Meat (pork and chicken) – 3-4 minutes. Shrimp – 2 minutes. Squid – 1 minute. Fish – 1 minute
Vegetables & Mushrooms (320ºF or 160ºC). Sweet potatoes – 2-3 minutes. Kabocha – 2-3 minutes. Shiitake mushrooms – 1 minute. Eggplant 1 minute. Shishito peppers – 30-40 seconds. Shiso – 15-20 seconds.
Tips for frying. Arrange the ingredients in cooking order. Start with the cleaner and less astringent ingredients. I suggest this order: Shiso, mushrooms, lotus root, eggplant, shrimp, sweet potatoes, and kabocha. We’ll fry the last two ingredients at a lower oil temperature.
When the oil reaches the right temperature, dip one piece of shiso, mushrooms, lotus root, eggplant, or shrimp (in this order) in the batter. Wait until later to fry the sweet potato and kabocha. For the shiso leaves, sift 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour (plain flour), sprinkle a bit on the back of the leaf, and dip only the back into the batter. The flour acts as a glue that helps the batter adhere. For the shrimp, dust lightly with the flour (or potato starch/cornstarch) before dipping.
Let the excess batter drip off for 1–2 seconds, and gently place in the hot oil. Continue to dip one piece at a time and add it to the hot oil without crowding the pot. Do not overcrowd the frying pot with ingredients – as a rule of thumb, only half of the oil surface should be covered with ingredients. So, deep fry in batches. Keep the oil temperature steady at all times.
Deep-fry until golden brown. Fry the shiso for 15–30 seconds, mushrooms for 1 minute, lotus root for 2 minutes each side, eggplant for 1 minute, and shrimp for 2 minutes.
Turn the tempura regularly to ensure even cooking. Pick up crumbs in the oil between batches – You wouldn’t want any burnt crumbs to attach to your new tempura pieces or dilute the oil flavour.
Once golden brown, transfer the tempura to a wire rack or a plate lined with paper towels to drain the excess oil.
The finished fry is thin and fluffy, yet crunchy. The bits of batter (known as tenkasu) are scooped out between batches of tempura so they do not burn and leave a bad flavour in the oil. A small mesh scoop (ami jakushi) is used for this purpose.
SERVING and PRESENTATION
Cooked pieces of tempura are either eaten with dipping sauce, salted without sauce, or used to assemble other dishes.
Tentsuyu or Tempura Dipping Sauce. The sauce itself is delicate but has all the sweet-savoury flavour you need to accentuate the enjoyment of fresh, hot tempura.
Tentsuyu: ¾ cup (180 ml) dashi (Japanese soup stock) (or ¾ cup water + 1 tsp dashi powder), 3 Tbsp soy sauce, 2 Tbsp mirin, 2 tsp sugar. Bring it to a boil, then lower the heat and let it simmer until the sugar is completely dissolved. Remove from the heat and set aside.
Serve the hot-off-the-frying-pot tempura with tentsuyu dipping sauce, along with grated daikon (peel and grate 2 inches of daikon radish and gently squeeze out some of the liquid). Prepare 3–4 Tbsp of warm tentsuyu in each dipping bowl with 1 Tbsp grated daikon per serving on the side. to help refresh your palate. It makes a remarkable main dish to enjoy on its own.
Tempura also goes well with flavoured salts such as matcha salt, yuzu salt, and curry salt.
You can serve tempura over steamed rice like Ten Don (Tempura Donburi), or serve it with chilled soba noodles
To store. Keep the tempura leftovers in a single layer between paper towels and put in an airtight container or a resealable plastic bag. Store in the freezer for 2 weeks. To reheat, place the tempura on a wire rack in the preheated oven (400ºF or 200ºC) or the toaster oven for 5 minutes or until crisp on the outside and heated through. If you have unused dipping sauce, you can store it in the refrigerator for up to 1–2 weeks.
