Japanese Recipes (Kathy)

Tempura (てんぷら or 天麩羅, tenpura?) refers to classic Japanese deep fried batter-dipped seafood and vegetables. The batter is made of ice cold water, flour, and eggs (or egg yolks). Small dry bite-sized pieces of food are dipped in flour, then in batter, and then deep fried for 2-3 minutes. In high-class restaurants, sesame oil or a mixture of sesame and other cooking oils are used.
Western chefs frequently include tempura dishes on their menus but seldom with 'authentic' results. This largely stems from a misunderstanding about mixing the batter which, in classic cookery must be beaten until homogeneous. Good tempura batter is mixed with chopsticks, but only for a few seconds. This leaves numerous lumps in the mixture and results in the unique tempura structure when cooked. Also crucial is that tempura batter be made freshly, with ice-cold water, in small batches.



INGREDIENTS:

12 large shrimps
1 egg
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup ice water
Vegetable oil for frying

PREPARATION:

Remove heads and shells from shrimps without removing tails. Devein the shrimps. Make two or three incisions in the stomach sides of the shrimps to straighten them. Lightly press the back of shrimps to straighten. Remove the dirt from the tails of shrimps, using a knife. Dry shrimps on paper towels. Make tempura batter. Heat the oil to 340F degree. Flour shrimps before frying. Dip the shrimps in the tempura batter. Fry the shrimps until crisp.