Tempura is a light crunchy Japanese batter that is both easy to make and highly versatile. It’s a bare-bones batter that doesn’t have a lot of flavor on its own yet enriches ordinary ingredients and takes them to a whole new level.
In reality, it’s a very thin quick bread batter and the key making this is COLD seltzer water. The other trick is to dust whatever you’re working with in Cornstarch so that the batter is able to stick to whatever you’re working with.
This stuff doesn’t last long so before you make this, make sure your fryer is set up and your vegetables and/or proteins are ready to go.
Mise En Place
- Whisk
- One small bowl, one large
- Plate
Ingredients
- 1 Cup of flour
- A pinch of Salt, Baking Powder and Baking soda
- 1 cup of Seltzer or soda water
- Cornstarch to precoat
Method of Preparation
- Make sure that water is COLD and place in the large bowl.
- Mix the dry ingredients in the small bowl then whisk into the water.
- Dust whatever you’re working with in cornstarch then coat with the batter and deep fry for 2-3 minutes depending on what you’re working with and the size of it.
Notes
- Some recipes call for egg but I like to keep my tempura as light and flakey as possible.
- Shrimp works well with this but don’t limit yourself, make a batch and experiment.
- Seasoning the food prior to battering it adds another layer of flavor.