Vegetable tempura
野菜天ぷら: lacy, light-as-air battered vegetables with a kombu-shiitake dipping sauce
JapaneseTempura (天ぷら) became a Tokyo street food in the Edo period, when stalls fried it to order by the city's riverbanks. The secret to the thin, lacy coating is an ice-cold, lumpy batter mixed at the last second and vegetables fried in small batches. Sweet potato, aubergine, pepper, shiitake and green beans all work well. Serve straight from the pan with a light dipping sauce and grated daikon. Chef's tip: keep everything cold. Use ice-cold water, mix the batter only seconds before frying, leave it lumpy, and stand the bowl in a larger bowl of ice. Cold batter hitting hot oil is what makes the lacy, crackly shell that Tokyo tempura masters prize.
- Total time
- 35 min
- Difficulty
- medium
- Serves
- 4
Ingredients
For the dipping sauce
- ¾ cup water
- ⅛ oz kombu (dried kelp)
- 3 tbsp soy sauce
- 3 tbsp mirin
- 3 ½ oz daikon radish (optional)finely grated
For the vegetables
- 1 sweet potatocut into 5 mm slices
- 1 auberginecut into fans or 1 cm slices
- 1 red or green peppercut into strips
- 8 fresh shiitake mushroomsstems removed
- 3 ½ oz green beanstrimmed
- 2 tbsp plain flourfor dusting
For the batter
- 1 eggcold
- ¾ cup ice-cold sparkling water
- 4 oz plain flour
- 2 tbsp cornflour
For frying
- vegetable oilfor deep-frying
- 1 pinch flaky sea salt (optional)
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Method
0/7 doneStep 1: Make the sauce: soak ⅛ oz kombu (dried kelp) in ¾ cup water for 10 minutes, then bring to a simmer in a small pan, remove the kombu and add 3 tbsp soy sauce and 3 tbsp mirin. Simmer for 1 minute and keep warm.
3 minStep 2: Pat all the vegetables completely dry: 1 sweet potato, 1 aubergine, 1 red or green pepper, 8 fresh shiitake mushrooms and 3 ½ oz green beans. Dust them lightly with 2 tbsp plain flour so the batter clings.
Step 3: Heat vegetable oil in a deep pan or wok, no more than half full, to 350°F. A drop of batter should sink halfway, then rise and sizzle.
Step 4: Only when the oil is hot, make the batter: beat 1 egg with ¾ cup ice-cold sparkling water, then tip in 4 oz plain flour and 2 tbsp cornflour all at once. Stir a few times with chopsticks: it should stay lumpy, with dry flour still visible. Over-mixing makes it heavy.
Step 5: Dip the vegetables one at a time in the batter, let the excess drip off and slide into the oil. Fry 5 or 6 pieces at a time for 2–3 minutes (sweet potato 3–4), turning once, until crisp and pale gold. Don't crowd the pan, or the oil cools and the batter turns greasy.
12 minStep 6: Lift onto a rack lined with kitchen paper and sprinkle with 1 pinch flaky sea salt. Skim off any loose bits of batter between batches.
Step 7: Serve straight away with the warm dipping sauce and a mound of 3 ½ oz daikon radish to stir into it.
Nutrition per serving
- Calories
- 360 kcal
- Protein
- 7 g
- Carbs
- 48 g
- Fat
- 16 g
- Fibre
- 6 g
Nutrition values are estimates.
KrazyBadal
Good to know
- How long does vegetable tempura take?
- About 35 minutes in total: 20 minutes to prepare and 15 minutes to cook.
- How many people does it serve?
- 4 as written. Change the servings above the ingredients and every amount scales to match.
- Is it vegetarian?
- Yes. It has no meat or fish.
- What can I use instead of soy sauce?
- Tamari, same amount (gluten free).
- What can I use instead of mirin?
- Rice vinegar with ½ tsp sugar per tbsp.
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