Family Travelogue: Tempura / cooking anyhow

Friday 20 May 2016

Tempura / cooking anyhow

I am not really proud with the outcome, chefs may get mad at me. Just cooking anyhow, enough to satisfy our cravings for our favourite Tempura tendon. Not as crispy as served in the Japanese restaurant...not as presentable as it should be... tastes Tempura though and my youngest was happy.

Needs credit for taking time to remove the head and the shell of the shrimps and the meticulously deveining. Further, peeling off the very hard pumpkin and I sliced anyhow.

We just bought tempura mix at the NTUC, added cold water, egg yolk and added some ice. The flour in the batter must develop little gluten as possible to result to a light and crispy tempura. Iced cold water develops gluten slower. I used canola oil and a little olive oil for frying. the prawns . I tried not to crowd the pot so the temperature will not drop quickly

You would notice half of the tempura were a bit dark. Why??? I should have removed the excess crumbs that got burned and made my oil darker. My batter got warmed and forgot to put more ice, the batter got a bit thick.

I should remember next time not to over mix the batter, better to have some lumps. Prawns must be towel dried before coating for a better output. Apparently, needs more improvement.

Tempura Tendon sauce:

3 tbsps mirin
3 tbsps soy sauce
1 tbsp brown sugar
half cup of shrimp stock (i don't have dashi stock)

boil the mirin to get rid off the alcohol smell, add the soy sauce, followed by the shrimp stock. let it boil then add the sugar. Stir for a minute or two.

Optional: Cook egg with chopped onions

In a bowl of rice, place the egg omelette over the rice, add the tempura and drizzle with the sauce. The next time I prepare this dish, I would make sure it would look appetizing (even in the photo only). I'll add green veggies such as lady fingers, brinjals and asparagus.