morsels45

morsels45 said

Tempura

Batter so thin it barely exists, fried so fast it stays pale.

Tempura
Photo: Yaco*, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. A photo of the dish, not of these exact recipes.

That was somebody else’s answer. Yours takes about twenty seconds: a handful of either-ors, then one dish.

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How to make tempura

2 genuinely different takes — a classic, and a faster or lighter route. The same ones the app hands you once you have decided.

Pale and barely there

35 minutes · serves 4 · Medium

What you need

  • 300g prawns
  • 1 sweet potato, 1 aubergine, green beans
  • 150g plain flour
  • 50g cornflour
  • 1 egg
  • 250ml ice-cold sparkling water
  • Oil for frying
  • Dashi, soy and grated mooli to dip

What you do

  1. 1Everything cold. Bowl in the freezer, water with ice in it, egg from the fridge. Cold batter hitting hot oil is what makes tempura light.
  2. 2Beat the egg into the ice water, then tip in the flours and stir about five times only. It must be lumpy. A smooth batter is a thick coating.
  3. 3Oil at 175C. Dip and fry in small batches, 2 minutes, turning once. It should stay pale — gold is already overdone.
  4. 4Drain standing up on a rack, never flat on paper.
  5. 5Dipping sauce: warm dashi, soy and a little sugar, with grated mooli stirred in at the table.

Vegetable only

25 minutes · serves 2 · Easy

What you need

  • Sweet potato, courgette, mushrooms, broccoli
  • Batter as above
  • Oil
  • Soy and lemon

What you do

  1. 1Same cold batter, same small batches.
  2. 2Firmer vegetables first, softer ones last.
  3. 3Soy with a squeeze of lemon to dip.