Who can resist delicious crispy homemade vegetable tempura? When making tempura at home, the goal is a crispy yet airy coating that doesn't absorb oil when deep fried. I’ll teach you how to achieve excellent results in this recipe.

Vegetable Tempura

INGREDIENTS

• neutral-flavored oil (vegetable, canola, etc) (for deep frying; untoasted sesame oil; vegetable oil : sesame oil = 10 : 1)

Tempura Ingredients:

• 1 Japanese sweet potato (Satsumaimo)
• ⅛ kabocha (squash/pumpkin)
• 2 inch lotus root (renkon) (peeled and precooked, “Renkon no Mizuni”)
• 2 king oyster mushrooms (eringi)
• 1 Japanese eggplants
• 4 Shiso leaves (Ooba)

Tempura Batter: (egg + water : flour = 1 : 1 by volume)

• 1 large egg (50 g w/o shell) (cold 1 large egg, 40 ml)
• 200 ml water (iced water)
• 1 cup all-purpose flour (plain flour) (120 g)

Tempura Dipping Sauce:

• ¾ cup dashi (Japanese soup stock; click to learn more) (200 ml; Kombu Dashi for vegetarian)
• 3 Tbsp soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp mirin
• 2 tsp sugar
• 2 inch daikon radish

INSTRUCTIONS

For Tempura Sauce:

1. Gather all the ingredients.

   
2. Combine dashi stock, mirin, sugar, and soy sauce in a small saucepan and bring it to a boil. Then lower the heat and let it simmer until sugar is completely dissolved. Remove from heat and set aside.

For Tempura Ingredients:

1. Gather all the ingredients.

2. Slice Japanese sweet potato into thin pieces and soak in water for 15-30 minutes to remove excess starch. Then dry them using paper towels.

3. Cut kabocha squash and lotus root into thin slices. Soak lotus root in vinegar water (2 cups water + 1 tsp. vinegar).

4. Cut King oyster mushroom into thin slices.

5. Discard the head of eggplant first, then cut it in half lengthwise. Then cut the eggplant lengthwise into very thin (about 1/8 inch) slices leaving the top 1-inch part intact. Gently press down on the eggplants to fan the slices out.

6. Once the ingredients are ready, heat 1 1/2" (3 cm) of the oil to 356F (180C) in a deep fryer or pot. To make batter, sift the flour into a large bowl.

For Tempura Batter:

1. Gather all the ingredients.

2. Sift all-purpose flour.

3. Add the egg into very cold water.

4. Whisk vigorously and discard the form on the surface.

5. As you slowly pour the egg mixture into the flour, mix the batter for about 1 minute with chopsticks in a figure 8 motion. Do not over mix and leave some lumps in the batter to avoid activation of wheat gluten. Keep the batter cold all the time by adding 1-2 ice cubes in the batter or by putting the batter bowl in a larger bowl containing ice water.

For Deep Frying:

1. Start deep-frying from the root vegetables as oil temperature needs to be a bit lower than non-root vegetables. If the ingredient is wet, dry them with a paper towel before dredging in the batter. While tempura is being fried, moisture from the ingredients will be evaporated and tempura will become crispy. However, if the ingredients have extra moisture, the tempura will become soggy after being deep-fried.

2. For root vegetables, deep fry at 320°F (160°C) for 3-4 minutes. For vegetables and mushrooms, at 338-356°F (170-180°C) for 1-2 minutes. Do not overcrowd with ingredients. Remember you only put ingredients taking up about 1/2 of oil surface area. When you put too many ingredients, the oil temperature will drop quickly. Make sure to keep the right temperature all the time. For shiso leaves, sprinkle a bit of sifted flour on the back of leaves and dip only the back of leaf into the batter and deep fry for 15 seconds. For ingredients that are hard to keep the batter on, such as Shrimp Tempura, Kakiage, or shiso, we dust extra flour before dredging the ingredient in the batter. Flour works as a glue and the batter tends to stay on the ingredients.

3. Transfer tempura to a wired rack or paper towel to remove excess oil.

4. Between batches, Between batches, remove the crumbs which will burn and turn the oil darker if left in fryer.

To Serve:

1. Grate daikon and squeeze water out.  Serve tempura immediately with grated daikon.  To enjoy, add grated daikon in tempura dipping sauce for refreshing taste.

https://www.justonecookbook.com/vegetable-tempura/