Tempura Vegetables with Dipping Sauce.

May 8th, 2010

Tempura is actually very easy to make, it is almost as easy as steaming vegetables although not quite as low in calories.

Makes enough batter for a large bowl of tempura vegetables.

Ingredients.

Batter

1/2 cup plain flour
1/3 cup corn flour (or potato flour)
1/2 cup water

Dipping sauce

1/3 cup kombu dashi stock (this is a Japanese stock made from kelp, you can buy it from asian groceries, just check is doesn't have any fish ingredients)
2 tablespoons mirin
1 tablespoon soy sauce

Vegetables such as broccoli, beans, snow peas, cauliflower, onion, mushroom, carrot, zuchinni - pretty much anything that isn't too wet
A few tablespoons plain flour to dust the vegetables.
About 1 litre of oil for frying (canola, peanut and rice bran oils are all fine)

Method.

\Pour about 1 cup of water into a bottle and place it in the freezer. Mix together the plain flour and corn flour in a bowl, cover it and place it in the freezer. Having the batter ingredients and mixing bowl nice and cold will make your batter crispy when it goes into the hot oil.

In a saucepan mix together the dipping sauce ingredients and simmer for five minutes and the set aside.

Prepare the vegetables into small bite sized chunks. Dust them with a little flour so that the batter will stick.

Add 2 inches of oil to a saucepan or wok and turn up to a high heat. Get your paper towel, tongs, strainer and serving plate ready.

Remove the flour and water from the freezer. Add half a cup of the water to the flour and mix with a chopstick. Mixing with a chopstick will ensure that you batter has a reasonable amount of lumps which will add texture to the tempura.

Check the heat of the oil by dropping a small amount of batter in, if it is ready it should immediately float to the top.

When the oil is ready coat a piece of vegetable (start with the ones that will take longest to cook) with the batter and drop in the oil. Repeat until the pan become too crowded. The vegetables should take between a minute and a minute and a half to cook. Drain and place on absorbent paper.

Serve within 2 or 3 minutes of cooking or the batter will become soggy.