Recipe(tried): Tempura and sauce

Here you go tempura and sauce....

A long time ago (about 400+ years back), when Japan was trading with Portuguese
and Dutch merchants, tempura was introduced to the country as the style in
which these merchants cooked vegetables and fish. Tempura was not popular among
Japanese people until the late Edo era. A tempura street vendor started to
serve tempura-fried sh caught fresh from Tokyo Bay, and it became popular with
the common people. Sesame seed oil was mainly used in those days.

It seems very hard to learn the knack of tempura frying. With a little help,
though, tempura deep frying can be so simple that you will want to show off to
your friends. The main ingredients are vegetables and fish of your choosing.

There are a few points that you have to remember:
1) slice the vegetables thin so they can be fried in a short time;
2) you will need a deep, thick-walled pan (a wok is OK) filled about 1 inch
deep with peanut oil (try other types of oil if you like, but never add lard or
shortening);
3) deep-fry in small batches so you can maintain the temperature of the oil;
and finally
4) tempura-fry vegetables at 340F and fish at 360F.

Ingredients:

[Koromo (batter)]
Using cold water (about 40F) is a must. This keeps the batter from becoming
sticky. When you add the flour, whisk quickly just to mix it in evenly. Sticky
batter results in oily tempura.

1 egg, beaten
1 cup COLD water
2 tablespoons dry white wine
1 cup flour
Beat the egg and mix with water. Add flour and whisk quickly.
[Tentsuyu (tempura dip)]

1 tablespoon dashi no moto in 1 cup of water, boiled for two to three minutes
2 tablespoons mirin. You can replace this with 1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons sake or dry white wine
1/4 cup soy sauce
ginger root to taste, freshly grated (optional)
After you boil the dashi, turn off the heat and add the rest of the ingredients.
[Vegetables & Fish] (ingredients and preparation suggestions)

Carrots, cut into thin sticks (i.e. 1 1/2 inches long)
Onions, sliced
Green pepper, cut into rings or any way you want
Eggplant, thinly sliced
Broccoli, prepared as for a for salad
Green onions, (see mixed vegetable tempura -- kakiage)
Zucchini, thinly sliced
Mushrooms, halved, or whole if small
Green beans, halved lengthwise, or whole
Asparagus, bite-sized (deep-fry 3 or 4 sticks together)
Butternut squash, bite-sized thin slices
Okra, halved lengthwise
Snow pea pods, whole

Cod, bite-sized
Shrimp, peeled, whole. Dip shrimp in the batter by holding the tail fin, and
fry two or three at a time.
Scallops, whole if small
Crab, break shell and expose meat before dipping in batter
Squid, sliced into rings or strips
Dredge fish in flour before dipping in batter.
Directions:

Heat the oil to 340F or 360F. Dip the vegetables or fish in the batter and
place them in the oil. If it is difficult to handle the vegetable chunks, you
may use a tablespoon to drop them in. Do not fry too much at a time, in order
to maintain the temperature. Take the tempura out of the oil just when the
batter gets SLIGHTLY brown. Vegetables usually take less than two to three
minutes. Remember: the thinner the vegetable, the faster it cooks. For fish,
the time to pull it out is when the batter turns very slightly brown. It is
good idea to do trial frying in the beginning. Taste it and decide how long it
will have to be fried. Once you get the timing right, the rest is simple.

Serve with tentsuyu. Tempura is also served with rice. This is called ten-don.
Put warm rice in a bowl or on a plate and place tempura on top of the rice.
Pour on two or three tablespoons of tentsuyu. Another popular way of serving
tempura is over a bowl of noodles. This is called tempura-udon or tempura-soba,
and it is traditional Japanese fast food.

There are many variations in tempura frying. You can mix two or three
vegetables and fry them together. This is called kakiage style. So be creative
and invent your own style.

- recipe courtesy of Hiroyuki Sato