Tempura

My Favourite Food <(^-^)>

Tempura

Tempura is a Japanese dish of seafood or vegetables that have been battered and deep fried.


Batter
A light batter is made of cold water (sometimes sparkling water is used to keep the batter light) and soft wheat flour (cake, pastry or all-purpose flour). Eggs, baking soda or baking powder, starch, oil, and/or spices may also be added.
 
Tempura batter is traditionally mixed in small batches using chopsticks for only a few seconds, leaving lumps in the mixture that, along with the cold batter temperature, result in the unique fluffy and crisp tempura structure when cooked. The batter is often kept cold by adding ice, or by placing the bowl inside a larger bowl with ice in it. Overmixing the batter will result in activation of wheat gluten, which causes the flour mixture to become chewy and dough-like when fried.


Various seafood and vegetables are commonly used as the ingredients in traditional tempura.


Serving and presentation
Cooked bits of tempura are either eaten with dipping sauce, salted without sauce, or used to assemble other dishes.
 
Tempura is commonly served with grated daikon and eaten hot immediately after frying.

 
In Japan, it is often found in bowls of soba or udon soup often in the form of a shrimp, shiso leaf, or fritter.

 
 The most common sauce is tentsuyu sauce (roughly three parts dashi, one part mirin, and one part shoyu).

 
Alternatively, tempura may be sprinkled with sea salt before eating. Mixtures of powdered green tea and salt or yuzu and salt are also used.

 
Kakiage is a type of tempura made with mixed vegetable strips, such as onion, carrot, and burdock, and sometimes including shrimp or squid, which are deep fried as small round fritters.

 
Tempura is also used in combination with other foods. When served over soba (buckwheat noodles), it is called tempura soba or tensoba.

 
 Tempura is also served as a donburi dish where tempura shrimp and vegetables are served over steamed rice in a bowl (tendon) and on top of udon soup (tempura udon).


In Japan, restaurants specializing in tempura are called tenpura-ya and range from inexpensive fast food chains to very expensive five-star restaurants.

 
Many restaurants offer tempura as part of a set meal or a bento (lunch box), and it is also a popular ingredient in take-out or convenience store bento boxes.

 
The ingredients and styles of cooking and serving tempura vary greatly through the country, with importance being placed on using fresh, seasonal ingredients.