Who doesn't love tempura? If done well you have a crispy lacy batter covering vegetables or seafood. While it is traditionally served with a soy based dipping sauce I prefer it served with some salt to dip the tempura into, so that it retains its crispy texture.
Doing tempura well is very hard. It was the only food I refused to cook when I was a private chef as it just could not be done well. However, once a year I will make an exception to the rule. Even though I can not do tempura justice I just can not resist to have sansai (spring mountain vegetables) tempura.
We had tara no me tempura for dinner the other night. While you can see my batter is not thin and lacy, and this dish is of course much better to have in a restaurant, if you can find one that serves this. If not, make it yourself. In our Tokyo home we have an angelica tree in our front yard and we could actually harvest these ourselves. These came from the market.
I am far from doing this recipe well, and don't make it often enough to perfect it. I simply put some chilled flour (cool it down in the fridge ahead of time) with some icy cold water (literally with ice chips in the water). Don't mix the batter too much and it should be quite watery. Dip the tara no me (or the other vegetables or seafood you have) into the batter and deep-fry until cooked through.
Sansai tempura in particular is nice as the spring mountain vegetables tend to have a slight bitterness to them that expresses itself well when served as tempura.
No comments:
Post a Comment