Tempura

Tempura

1. The ingredients for making tempura are not complicated. You can make all the fish, shrimp and vegetables you want to eat. But knives are exquisite. Vegetables and fish are cut into strips or slices. The difficulty lies in the handling of prawns. The first time I handled the shrimp was incorrect. I did not remove the shrimp heads as shown in the picture. The second time I completely processed the prawns perfectly according to the tempura method. See the picture below.

2. Shrimp processing: The first step is to remove the shrimp head, peel off the shell, leaving only a little tail; in the second step, use a knife to cut the shrimp with four knives, cut to three quarters, and not cut off. Purpose The shrimp tendons are cut off. The shrimp will be straight and not bent during frying. This is a sign of whether the seafood tempura is authentic. The third step is to marinate the shrimp with cooking wine, white pepper, and a little salt for 15 minutes.

3. The preparation of tempura batter: The amount of low-gluten flour is determined according to the amount of ingredients, put an egg, and mix well with purified water (preferably refrigerated). In order to highlight the original flavor of the raw materials, the tempura is usually prepared very thinly. The paste, especially the tempura made with green leafy vegetables, can still see the ingredients in the package. The ingredients to be fried are first coated with dry low-gluten flour, then put in the batter to drag, and then directly put into the oil pan to fry.

4. The oil temperature is controlled between 170-180°. You can throw in a little batter in advance to try it. It can quickly agglomerate and float to the standard oil temperature. Fry the ingredients one by one into the oil pan, and fry them until golden brown and float to pick up the oil control. It is recommended to fry the vegetables first, then the fish and shrimps, so that there will be no skewness between the ingredients.

5. The tempura dipping sauce comes standard with grated radish soy sauce, which is delicious and relieves greasiness (dipping combination: white radish, ginger, light soy sauce). In fact, we can also vary our dipping sauces according to our own tastes: Thousand Island Salad Dressing, Heinz Tomato Ketchup, Thai Sweet Chili Sauce and so on.

Tips:

Based on my experience of making tempura twice, here are some tips:
First, don’t cook too many ingredients each time, three or four kinds of vegetables, and one kind of seafood. You can eat them in different ways each time;
Second, the knife should be in place, the slices should be thin, and the slices should not be too thick. After this shape is battered and fried, the ingredients will quickly absorb moisture. Tempura uses the principle of insoluble in water and oil to dehydrate food. , To remove excess water from the ingredients, making the ingredients crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. This is also a major feature of tempura, which achieves the effect of being crispy and non-sticky;
Third, the batter should be thin and the oil temperature should be standard. The tempura made in this way is basically zero failure.
Making tempura is a dish that requires careful attention. The key is six words: knife, batter, and oil temperature.