Tempura is a style of breading and deep frying for vegetables and seafood. Serve with tempura dipping sauce, called tentsuyu in Japanese. You can pour it into a small dipping bowl, piping hot, when you serve tempura.
First, the sauce.
Ingredients
3 tbsp mirin
2 cups ichiban dashi (you can find the recipe on our site)
5 tbsp light soy sauce
1 1/2 tbsp regular soy sauce
1 1/2 tbsp sugar
method
Combine all the ingredients and boil. As soon as it boils, remove from heat and serve.
Now, for the tempura.
Ingredients
1 egg
1 1/2 cup cake flour (soft flour)
any choice of vegetables, such as zucchini, carrot, yam, mushrooms, and Japanese style eggplant. Except for the mushrooms (left whole) and the eggplant (cut into 3 inch lengths, each sliced in half.) the other vegetables can all be sliced thinly.
4 prawns, deveined. remove shell, legs, and head.
Method
beat the egg lightly and add some ice water to make 3/4 cup of liquid. Transfer half of the egg mixture to a large bowl, reserving the rest.
Add 1/2 cup of the cake flour to the egg, smoothing all lumps.
Put another 1/2 cup of flour into a seperate bowl. Dredge the vegetables and prawns in the flour, shaking off the excess.
Then, with 3 inches deep of clean oil heated to 340F in a deep pan or wok, dip each floured ingredient into the batter and deep fry, three or four at a time. There should be enough oil for the ingredients to swim in the oil while frying.
Because the shrimp, eggplant and thinly sliced vegetables cook quickly, keep an eye on them while they fry. Take them out as soon as they turn light golden.
Drain on a rack and repeat for the rest of the flour, egg, and other ingredients.
Serve hot with the tentsuyu. You can also place a small mountain of grated daikon (Japanese radish) and a pinch of grated ginger on the plate of tempura to add to the dipping sauce.