7 Japanese dish: 天ぷら (tempura)

it’s another dish from the ‘cooking with Keiko-san’ collection. it seems like it’s been forever since we cooked together. I’m back in Poland now, tensai – still in Japan. feels so weird to post on this blog, by myself. consulting only with tensai, on fb.
but we’re not giving up! in the Internet era, everything is possible. especially for aho&tensai!

Tempura is a simple dish, nothing more but battered and fried seafood and vegetables. but the simplicity is the key here: i made tempura for my family in Poland and they said: i had no idea that an eggplant may taste like that! ^^
Let’s get started!

INGREDIENTS: 

lotus root
eggplant
squid
green pepper
pumpkin
shrimps

FOR BATTER:
egg
flour
cold water

HOW TO MAKE?

1. Prepare all the ingredients. Wash them.

2. Cut the ingredients. First, cut the eggplant in halves (if it’s small, if bigger – quarters). When cut, make small slits into the skin and put it in the bowl filled with cold water.

3. Peel the lotus root. It’s not exactly easy, I have to say. But doable ;) Then, cut it in slices and also put into the bowl filled with cold water.

4. Cut the pumpkin. If the pumpkin is too hard to cut, you can wrap it in cling film and heat it a little bit in the microwave (about 20s), that will make it softer.

5. Peel and devein shrimps. How to do it? First, pull off the head and legs. Starting with the head, pull off the outer shell. Using a small knife, cut along the outer edge of the shrimps back, not really deep. If you can see the vein, remove it, using your fingers. If you can’t see the vein, don’t bother ^^

After you peel and devein the shrimps, season them with salt.

6. Now, when everything is cut:

you can start making the batter. Prepare a big bowl, crack an egg into it and beat it.After you do that, add some water.

In the end, add the flour. The batter shouldn’t be very well mixed, some lumps are ok ^^

7. Now, preheat the oil in the deep frying pan. Check if it’s hot and when you confirm it – start frying.

Important thing: start frying the vegetables, as for the shrimp/squid – fry at the end. Shrimps and squid have a pretty strong smell so frying them at the end is the best idea to keep your vegetables out of the fishy taste ^^

8. When it’s fried, put them out on a plate with paper kitchen towel. You can get rid of the oil that way.

9. You can eat tempura with just salt or with sauce made from grated daikon (white radish) mixed with mentsuyu (めんつゆ), Japanese dipping and soup base sauce.

That’s all! Enjoy!

Keiko-san, ありがとう！

aho&tensai