Tempura (or tempura) - a category of dishes from fish, vegetables, seafood, cooked in a special way, very popular in the Japanese cuisine: they are dipped in dough and deep-fried. To cook Tempura, use a special flour. Serve tempura with Japanese specific sauces.
On the origin of the dish
The name Tempura comes from the Portuguese word tempora, used by Portuguese Jesuit missionaries, who were the first Europeans to come to Japan in 1542. Missionaries with the word "tempora" denoted the period of fasting. During the days of fasting, it was possible to eat fish, seafood and vegetables, and one of the ways of preparing these products was frying in batter. The Japanese adopted this method of cooking from the Portuguese, and the word entered the Japanese language as the name of a group of dishes cooked in this way. It should be noted that before the appearance of the Japanese in Japan, the Japanese did not use such a method as frying in oil. That is, Europeans influenced the development of Japanese cuisine is not the best way, because frying in oil does not benefit the body. However ... tempura is very tasty.
What is tempura made from?
Tempura is made from different products: tempura shrimps (ebi tempura), calamari can be prepared. Banana tempura is also a very nontrivial dish. Tempura is traditionally prepared from fish, other seafood, asparagus, cauliflower, sweet pepper, fruits, less often from meat.
About batter
The tempura is prepared from eggs, special flour and cold water. Tempura flour consists of a mixture of rice and wheat flour, as well as starch and salt. All ingredients are not whipped, they are just slightly stirred with a spatula (not intensively). Consistency of batter should be like a thin sour cream, it should be light and airy, with small bubbles.
Tempura with fish
Ingredients:
- 500 grams of sea fish fillet. River fish should not be used - there may be parasites that do not have time to become safe during cooking;
- 4 tablespoons flour for tempura. If there is no special flour, you can mix 1 tablespoon of rice flour (grind white rice in a coffee grinder) with 2 tablespoons of high-grade wheat and 1 tablespoon of starch;
- 2-3 egg whites;
- 2 onions;
- 3 sweet peppers;
- 1 root of the daikon;
- gram 250 of sea kale;
- vegetable oil.
Preparation:
When kneading the batter, add 1 tablespoon of light wine to it. Mix flour with egg whites, wine and ice water. Stir, but do not whisk. We cut fish and sweet peppers into small pieces, and onions - rings. Pour the oil into the cauldron and bring to a boil. Fish, peppers and onion rings are dipped in batter, after which it is lowered into deep-frying (hot oil) and quickly fried until golden. Ideally, the fried slice is held with chopsticks, but you can use a noisy or chef tweezers. Fried
There is also an alternative technology: the roasted main product is shaped like a thin roll, dipped in a batter and fried, and then cut into slices across.
We serve with a salad of grated daikon and sea kale (seasoned with butter), with boiled rice, wasabi and soy sauce. You can serve warm sake or whiskey.