Japanese Cooking and Sake Live vol.10

Products used in "Japanese Cooking and Sake Live vol.10"

Tempura

Serves 2

200g      Nissin tempura flour

320ml   Water

3   Ice cubes

70g         Plain flour 

200ml   Yamasa Tempura Senka

1 tbsp    Mooli radish, grated

1 tsp      Ginger, grated

2tsp       Salt

1/2tsp   Matcha Powder

1/2tsp   Freeze dry Yuzu

600ml-1L vegetable oil or sunflower oil

4             Large whole prawns (or headless prawns with shell)

1              Baby aubergine

½             Sweet corn

8              Green beans

½             Sweet potato     

¼             Sushi Nori

Preparations

Prawns

1. Remove the vein by inserting a bamboo skewer to the 2nd muscle notch from the head and pull it out.
2. Remove the head and the shell but leave the tail intact.
3. Place a prawn with the stomach side up on a cutting board, make 5 incisions one third of the way down on each notch where the muscle is. 
4. Keep the prawn straight vertically on the cutting board. Place both of your thumbs on each notch and press down gently until you hear the muscle splitting sound. Repeat the process for all 5 notches.

Other ingredients

1. Sweet corns – remove the corns from the cob
2. Aubergine and sweet potatos – slice to about 1cm thickness
3. Green beans – remove the ends to tidy up
4. Sushi Nori – cut into 1/8^thof the full size nori

Tempura batter

1. In a medium bowl, add water and ice then add the tempura flour. Mix the batter lightly. Colder the batter the crispier tempura becomes.

Flour for dusting

1. Prepare a medium plate and add the plain flour. 

Tempura dipping sauce

1. You can use Yamasa Tempura Senka as it is, but pre-heating is necessary.

A plate or tray with kitchen paper or grill

1. to allow the excess oil to drip

The fresh ingredients should be stored in the fridge until the last minute.

Cooking

1. Preheat the oil to 170-180°C in the stable, deep frying pan or wok. If you use the wok, ensure it is placed on the wok stand for safety. If you have a kitchen thermometer, it will help to keep track of the temperature.
2. To test the temperature, splash a small amount of tempura batter in the heated oil. If they hit the bottom but come back to the top straight away the oil is around 150-160°C that are suited for vegetables. If they spread on the surface immediately the oil is 170-180°C or higher. Note that the oil temperature could go up to 250°C so please try to maintain 170-180°C that is suitable for prawns by controlling the heat.
3. Dust each ingredient in the flour. This will help dry the surface of the ingredients which prevents the splatter and helps the batter attach to the ingredients better. Do this little by little as you go along cooking the tempura.
4. After dusting, dip the ingredients in the batter, release gently to the oil. The tempura tips while cooking are:
   • Keep removing the floating batter from the bottom and the surface. This will prevent the batter from burning and the oil temperature from dropping.
   • Keep monitoring the temperature
   • Don’t add too much at once as it reduces the temperature rapidly, resulting in soggy tempura
   • Don’t touch the tempura for the first 30 seconds in the oil. Ingredients must be ‘steamed’ inside the batter, so if you touch too early, you will be breaking the coating, allowing the oil to enter, resulting in oily tempura.
   • Halfway in the cooking, turn around the ingredients to allow the even cooking.
5. Cooking time

• Prawns – 2-3 minutes
• Sweet potato – 3 minutes
• Aubergine – 2 minutes
• Green beans – 1 minute
• Sushi Nori – 1 minute (batter on one side only)
• Sweet corns – 2-3 minutes (scoop up in a table spoon to drop to the oil)

6. Serve with the warm dipping sauce with grated ginger and spring onions. Alternatively, serve with House Yuzu Freeze Dry mixed with equal volume of salt, or Shichimi Pepper mixed with equal volume of salt.