Taming the Tempura

Lets start off with a starter. We try tempura with ingredients at home and come close to that golden crispy skin

Something outrageous is cooking in this kitchen,bad enough to provoke chef bullies from Japan to sharpen their cleavers and have us thrown out. We are making crispy tempura,that Japanese starter we learnt to munch before we could balance delicate sushi rolls on our chopsticksbut with ingredients from an Indian kitchen. Chef Sabyasachi Gorai (Saby to most) from the south Delhi restaurant Ai,might be a purist when he rolls out dishes every night for his clients but for us,he agrees to tweak the classic tempura dish into a quick home recipe. To the sceptical,he says with a merry glint in his eye: Look,pakoras are what we closely associate tempura with,dont we? And if you get the batter right,tempura makes for an excellent snack, says Saby,who has honed his cooking skills in Hong Kong and Australia.

You cant argue with that. Tempura is a deep-fried snack of seafood or vegetables,but wrapped in a translucent crispy skin. But considering the fact that the jumbo prawns and vegetables get a good swim in bubbling oil,it is extraordinarily light and well-cooked, says the chef.

And in the defence of improvisation,let it be said that the Japanese discovered tempura in the mid-sixteenth century when the Portuguese introduced their deep-frying technique to street-side woks on the ribbon lanes of southern Japan. New to frying and used till then to pickling their food,the Japanese swiftly mastered the style and havent stopped simmering their batter-coated shrimps in bubbling oil since.
We begin sharp at noon and an assorted basket of scrumptious veggies wrapped in crispy pale-yellow skin is ready in about half hour.

Story continues below this ad

Flour power
To keep the traditionalist happy,Saby tells us,You can easily get tempura flour and ready-to-serve tempura dips at shopping hubs like INA and Khan Market in Delhi,Crawford Market in Mumbai and New Market in Kolkata. Or make your own tempura flour. Take one cup of regular flour and mix it with one egg yolk and two spoonfuls of cornflour. Vegetarians can easily substitute egg with two spoons of rice meal. Add half teaspoon of baking soda for a light and flaky coat. Whip it with crushed ice or chilled water and leave it a bit lumpy. The lumps and cold water give a light and flaky skin. Always keep the batter cold by adding ice,or by placing the batter on a bowl of ice.

Choose your vegetables
For an assorted basket,we pick fresh seasonal vegetables okra,baby corn,peppers,carrot,banana flower,eggplant and sweet potato. The ingredients must be absolutely fresh. Slicing is equally important. While our Japanese counterpart would have simply slashed out the root-ends and slit the other side,Indians prefer their vegetable cooked so it is best to slit vegetables like okra into two or thin-slice bigger ones like eggplant so that the oil cooks it well. Diamond slants add an extra style and look pretty too, Saby says. For an exotic twist tear out a few strips of Nori sheet (available at most super-marts) and batter-fry them too.

Cover story
For the translucent crispy jacket,don’t drown the slices in the batter. First rub some dry flour on the sides of the vegetables and then dip them. We usually skip this part at home and make the vegetables swim in the batter. Saby also insists we use a whole lot of oil to fry,almost double the normal amount you use. Ironically,lots of oil at the right temperature stop the vegetables from soaking the grease up. Also,if you thought deep-frying is something you’ve done since your teens,here’s a tip. Always put the stuff in a swinging motion away from your body. It reduces the chance of burning your fingers. And it is important to scoop out bits of batter (maybe with a small mesh scoop) between batches of tempura,so they do not burn and leave a bad flavour in the oil.

Classic Tempura
If you want shrimps to be a part of the crunchy basket,make sure to devein them and remove the shells. It is also important that you flatten the shrimp. That stops it from curling up in the oil. Never overcook tempura or let the batter turn a deep shade of brown. It has to be pale golden and translucent. For vegetables,seven to ten seconds in the frying pan is enough and prawns require a little more.

Story continues below this ad

Dashi or tempura sauce
Take regular soy and water in equal portions (say half cup each) and heat them. The original recipe asks you to flavour this with mirin and sake (Japanese rice wines) and bonito chips,all expensive ingredients. Instead,pour the mixture out in a bowl and add a pinch of crushed ginger and radish,and just a sprinkle of sugar.

Serve it hot
Tempura has to be served hot and you have to be quick with the decoration. Place a blotting paper or a tissue on the plate and heap up the fried vegetables or shrimps into a pyramid. You can even top it with slivers or rings of fresh vegetables.
Our verdict
Seven on 10. However,if you use the real tempura flour,which is almost Rs 350 a kilo,you will definitely get a crunchier bite.

INGREDIENTS
(serves two)
For the batter
Egg yolk 1
(or rice meal 1 tbsp)
Flour 150gm
Cornflour 1 1/2 tbsp
Cold water 150 ml

For the dashi (sauce)
Water or vegetable stock 600ml
Dark soya 100 ml
Radish crushed,half teaspoon
Crushed ginger half teaspoon
Vegetables,eight pieces each Asparagus,okra,coconut,baby corn,baby carrot, Prawns,six pieces