Tempura 天ぷら

It's been a while since I tried a new traditional Japanese recipe, so it is time for cooking.

This time I tried making 天ぷら Tempura, another very famous meal in Japan, which you will find in any Japanese restaurant in and outside of Japan. Although Tempura was originally brought to Japan by the Portuguese, it is now considered a traditional Japanese meal.

Again making Tempura is quite easy and doesn't take many ingredients. However depending on how much you want to make and how large your frying pan is, it will take a while.

材料 Ingredients

- 米 rice
- 天ぷら粉 Tempura flour*
- てんつゆ Tentsuyu (Tempura Sauce)**
- たくさん 揚げ油 much cheap frying Oil
- optional: 卵 egg
- 野菜 vegetables: たまねぎ Onion, にんじん Carrot, ナス Eggplant, さつまいも Sweet Potato, かぼちゃ Pumpkin, 茸 Mushrooms, (Broccoli, uncommon but tastes great)
(- for non vegetarians Japanese usually add 海老 shrimps)

* normal flour will do just fine, if you can't find it
** take normal soy sauce, if you can't find it

作り方 Cooking Manual

1. Put the rice in a rice cooker or make it with a pot and boiling water

2. Cut the vegetables in 1-2 cm thick slices. You can leave the mushrooms and the broccoli parts as they are.



3. Prepare the batter: Mix the egg with the flour and add some cold water. Mix it until it becomes like a dough, you don't need to overdo it, you can leave some lumps in it.

4. Now put as much oil in the frying pan, that the vegetables will be covered by it and make it boil.

5. Now put the vegetable slices one by one into the dough, until they are completely covered by dough and place them in the boiling oil. Be careful! The oil gets really hot and if you accidentally put some water inside, it will squirt and maybe injure your eyes or something.
You can put as many vegetables in the pan, as there is space. Turn them around after a while and when they are done, put them on a plate and continue with the next ones.



6. When all is fried you can put some rice in bowls and add the fried vegetables on top. When 天ぷら Tempura is served like this, it is referred to as 天丼 Tendon, where 丼 Don means bowl ^_^. You can use Tempura soy sauce either to dip the Tempura in (that's the normal way), or you put it on top of your Tempura and rice (that's what I do ^_^).



Enjoy! Of course Tempura is eaten with 箸 Hashi (chopsticks).

mika