Tempura with Prawns,
Shiitake Mushrooms and Aubergine
with a Dipping Sauce
This is designed for beginners,
just to get the feel of making tempura and the practice. There are, of course, many different types of
ingredients that can be used, such as calamari, chilles,
pieces of green pepper, baby scallops, onion rings or quarters, carrots, spring
onions, leeks – the list is endless. If
you happen to live near an oriental food shop and come across shiso leaves (a Japanese herb), these dipped in the batter
and quickly fried are delicious and make the whole thing look pretty.
Serves 2 as a first course, or
as a main course served with rice
Ingredients
4 raw tiger prawns (tails on) fresh or
frozen, defrosted if frozen
4 shiitake mushrooms
2 slices aubergine, 3/4-inch (2 cm) thick
2 1/2 cups peanut
or vegetable oil
1 teaspoon sesame
oil
1 Tablespoon corn flour, for coating
For
the batter:
2 oz (50 g) corn
flour
1 large egg
3 fl oz (75 ml) iced
water
For
the dipping sauce:
1 oz (25 g) daikon radish (mooli), peeled
1 teaspoon wasabi powder mixed with 1˝ teaspoons water
3 Tablespoons Japanese
soy sauce
You will
also need a medium size pan, about 8˝ in (21 cm) diameter, and a cooking
thermometer.
The
first thing you need to do is weigh out the corn flour, put it in a polythene
bag and then place it with the unbroken egg in the fridge for about 1 hour to
get thoroughly cold. At the same time
place a few ice cubes and about 3 fl oz (75 ml) cold water in a bowl or jug and
put that in the fridge as well. Meanwhile,
prepare the rest of the ingredients.
De-vein
the prawns: you can do this by inserting a cocktail stick in the centre of the
back, digging down a little, then pulling the cocktail stick back and the
little thread will pull out.
In
Next
prepare the dipping sauce. Grate the daikon radish finely, squeeze out the excess liquid in the
palm of your hand, then place it in a saucer with the
reconstituted wasabi.
When
you're ready to cook the tempura, combine the two oils and begin to heat them,
using a thermometer to check how hot it is getting. Have a plate with absorbent kitchen paper
ready for draining and keep it in a warm place. When the oil reaches 175°F (90°C), take the
chilled ingredients out of the fridge.
In a
bowl using chopsticks, blend the egg with 3 fl oz (75 ml) of the iced water,
not too thoroughly – it's more blending than whisking. Now sift the corn flour, and what's going to
be really hard now is to resist the temptation to whisk, but instead very
lightly blend leaving some free corn flour unblended, and totally ignoring the
lumps!
When the
oil reaches 350°F (180°C), measure 1 heaped Tablespoon of corn flour on to a
plate – you're going to use this to coat the ingredients before they go into
the batter. Begin with the prawns and,
after coating with the corn flour, hold the tail of the prawn with cooking tongs,
then quickly coat it with batter, and if this includes a lump, all the better. Now keep hold of the tail, lower the prawn
into the hot oil and then release the tail about 30 seconds later. Now do the same with the second prawn and when
they float to the top and the batter turns golden, they're cooked, so now
remove them to the plate lined with kitchen paper to drain.
Now
quickly cook the other 2 prawns and follow these first with the mushrooms, then
the aubergines, all coated in corn flour and dipped in
the lumpy batter first. You can put all
4 mushrooms in together and then all the aubergine in
together.
When
you're ready to serve the tempura, add the soy sauce to the radish and wasabi. Mix together
and use as a dipping sauce.
Over the past three decades Delia Smith has informed, entertained and
educated with recipes and information about food and cookery. Through her
books, television series, newspaper columns and magazine work she has achieved
an unmatched position of popularity in the
This recipe
first appeared in Sainsbury’s Magazine (Oct 1994).
http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/tempura-with-prawns-shiitake-mushrooms-and-aubergine-with-a-dipping-sauce,1060,RC.html