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Monday, March 18, 2024
March 18, 2024

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Learn the art of tempura to master frying at its finest

The Columbian
Published:

One of those meals that has been seared into my memory is a tempura dinner in Tokyo. It was in a tiny place, with just one cook behind the bar and six of us seated at it. He swooped one vegetable or piece of seafood after another through a batter, into a wok and onto our plates, seemingly that quickly. We ate one piece at a time, dipping each into a simple sauce that added a little saltiness and freshness to each bite, and finishing the mushroom cap or the shrimp or the lotus root before the chef made us another piece.

The most impressive thing was how shatteringly crisp and light the crust was — not heavy or greasy in the slightest. Second most impressive was how the flavor of each item came through so strongly. Contrary to expectation, the breading seemed to accentuate, not overpower, the food.

It’s surprising, given how often I mention this experience, almost 10 years after I lived it, that I’ve only recently started making my own tempura at home. I’m a member of the frequent-fryer club, so it’s not that I’m worried, as too many cooks are, about heating up oil. I suppose I’ve been intimidated by the precision of Japanese cooking; I had a sense that there was much more to tempura than it seemed, and I never went there.

What I needed, really, was a good guide, and I got one in the delightful “Japanese Soul Cooking,” by Tadashi Ono and Harris Salat (Ten Speed Press, 2014). The book beautifully demystifies so much of Japanese cooking, reminding readers that at their heart, ramen, gyoza, tonkatsu and, yes, tempura are pure comfort food.

The book isn’t vegetarian — far from it — but the instructions for vegetable tempura alone are worth the cover price. The most surprising tip: to barely (and I mean barely) mix the tempura batter, leaving lots of lumps and unblended flour in it, and to mix it up immediately before coating and frying. The goal, the authors write, is to keep the gluten from forming; it’s the same theory as trying not to overwork, say, biscuits or pie crust. The batter’s uneven consistency adds to its laciness upon frying, and keeping it cold with ice cubes makes it more viscous — and therefore more likely to adhere to the vegetables.

And there’s more. The point is to read every bit of instruction and to pay close attention. If you do, you’ll be able to produce tempura worthy of memories, too.

Vegetable Tempura

4 servings

Among the key steps: Barely mix the batter; prepare it just before frying. Maintain the right oil temperature. Drain the just-fried vegetables thoroughly.

Choose your favorite combination of vegetables, such as broccolini, winter squash or pumpkin, eggplant, sweet potato, shiitake mushroom caps or other mushrooms, carrots — really, anything you like. You’ll need a thermometer to monitor the frying oil. Adapted from “Japanese Soul Cooking,” by Tadashi Ono and Harris Salat (Ten Speed Press, 2014).

• For the tempura

1 pound assorted vegetables, cleaned, trimmed as needed and cut into bite-size pieces

1/2 cup cake flour

Vegetarian dashi, for dipping (see recipe on www.washingtonpost.com/pb/recipes), or a dipping sauce of your choice

8 ounces daikon radish, peeled, coarsely grated and squeezed to remove excess liquid

1/2-inch piece fresh ginger root, peeled and finely grated

2 quarts vegetable oil, for frying

1/4 cup toasted sesame oil, for frying

• For the batter

2 large egg yolks

2 cups cold water

1/4 cup ice cubes

2 cups cake flour

Prepare a cooking station next to the stove-top burner. Have ready the vegetables, a plate with the 1/2 cup of cake flour, and the ingredients for the wet and dry parts of the batter. Set a cooling rack over a paper-towel-lined baking sheet, and line up your tools: chopsticks, a metal strainer and a candy thermometer or instant-read thermometer.

Pour the vegetable and sesame oils into a large, deep cast-iron skillet or Dutch oven set over high heat. Bring the oil mixture to 360 degrees (slightly lower than the standard 375 degrees for frying, because tempura cooks quickly).

Meanwhile, prepare the separate wet and dry parts of the batter: Combine the yolks and water in a bowl, mixing until well incorporated, then add the ice cubes. Place the 2 cups of cake flour in another bowl.

When you’re ready to fry, finish the batter: Quickly add the 2 cups of cake flour to the liquid, all at once. Hold 4 chopsticks together, the tips pointed down, like you’re grabbing a bottle. Stab at the batter with the chopsticks, mashing down repeatedly to combine the dry and wet parts. Do not stir; you barely want to mix the batter. (The chopsticks are much less efficient than a spoon or spatula — which is exactly the point.) Mix for only about 30 seconds or until the batter becomes loose and liquid, with the consistency of heavy cream. It should be lumpy, with visible globs of dry flour floating in it and with unmixed flour sticking to the sides of the bowl. That’s preferred; you don’t want to over-mix.

Lightly coat the vegetables in the flour on the plate, then dip them into the batter one at a time. Immediately and carefully use one hand to lay each vegetable in the hot oil, working in batches. (Use, at most, half of the surface area of the oil to cook.) Deep-fry the denser vegetables like sweet potato or carrot first, for about 3 minutes, until they turn golden brown. Transfer them to the cooling rack to drain. Repeat with the other vegetables. Cook softer vegetables like asparagus, broccoli and pumpkin for about 2 minutes.

Serve the tempura immediately, with a dish of dipping sauce and a small mound of daikon topped with ginger on the side, for each portion. (To eat, add the daikon and ginger to the dipping sauce right before dunking in the first piece of tempura.)

Ingredients are too variable for a meaningful analysis.

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