Tempura - A Dinner Break from Chicken

Dan and I were tired of chicken so we took a break from it on Tuesday night. That's when I decided that we needed to share Tempura Night with our friends.

Let me just say that it's a lot of work and is better attempted on a weekend night. Don't get me wrong. It was delicious and everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves. But of course, you know me, I had to make everything from scratch. So it was a lot of work.

--Miso soup made with fresh dashi (Japanese seaweed/fish-based stock),
--My 50/50 rice mix (sweet rice and brown rice) on the stovetop that even my anti-brown rice friend will have seconds of,
--Fresh tempura dipping sauce with dashi, mirin, soy sauce, and sugar (I also grated fresh daikon and ginger to boot),
--Green salad with homemade miso dressing,
--5 different tempura items (sweet potato, carrot, asparagus, mushroom, shrimp)
--and deep fried tofu...hey, I had hot oil and extra tofu left after making the miso soup.

Y'know I think I would have battered and fried an Oreo if I'd had one on hand.

So, if I were to do it again, I'd do it the same, just on a Saturday night! But to make it easier, one can easily buy miso soup mix in the Asian aisle of any grocery store, use a rice cooker, get a bag o' salad and bottled dressing, and only do three fried items. I would still recommend NOT buying the tempura mix though. I think it's a waste. Here's my recipe:

1 egg, beaten
1 c. very cold seltzer water or club soda
1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 c. corn starch
(That's it. What you buy in the box for $2.50 is 25 cents worth of flour and starch that's probably 2 years old. No thank you.)

1) Add cold setzer/soda to beaten egg and mix.
2) Pour in flour and starch all at once.
3) Stir sparingly. The batter should be runny and lumpy.

The keys to good tempura:
--Use cold water and keep the batter cold (that difference in temperature helps batter to be lighter and less oily)
--Stir batter sparingly
--Make sure oil temp returns to 340-350*F before adding new items.

The only thing I was disappointed in was the carrots. The oil must not have been hot enough cuz it was oily and the batter didn't stick well. My favorite is, of course, the shrimp. There's a trick to that, too. Y'know, in order for it to not curl. Email me if you want to know.

Hey, I can't give away all the culinary secrets in one sitting!