What is yasai tempura?
Yasai means vegetables in Japanese. Tempura is what the Japanese call anything fried in this light, unseasoned batter. Portuguese traders and missionaries brought deep-frying in batter to Nagasaki in the 16th century, and Japanese cooks turned it into a style of their own. With shrimp you know the dish as ebi tempura. Fine vegetable strips fried in batter as little nests are called kakiage.
Which vegetables work?
Firm vegetables need thin slices so they cook through before the batter darkens. Soft vegetables can be thicker. The times apply at 170 to 180 °C and are a rough guide.
| Vegetable | Cut | Frying time |
|---|---|---|
| Sweet potato, pumpkin | 5 mm slices | 3 to 4 minutes |
| Eggplant | 1 cm slices | 2 minutes |
| Zucchini | 1 cm slices | 2 minutes |
| Broccoli | small florets | 2 minutes |
| Bell pepper, shiitake | quarters, whole caps | 1 to 2 minutes |
The tempura batter
Tempura flour from an Asian grocery store is made of wheat flour, starch and a little baking powder. As a substitute, mix 100 g all-purpose flour with 20 g cornstarch. Make the batter only when the oil is hot.
- Ice-cold water: Chill the water in the fridge beforehand or add ice cubes. In cold batter the flour forms less gluten, so the crust stays thin.
- Mix briefly: Stir with chopsticks until no dry flour is visible. Small lumps are fine. Batter stirred smooth turns tough and the crust heavy.
How to make vegetable tempura
- Pat the vegetables dry after washing. On wet vegetables the batter slides off and the oil spatters.
- Dust the pieces lightly with flour before dipping them in the batter. The batter sticks better.
- Test the temperature without a thermometer using a drop of batter. If it sinks halfway and rises again right away, the oil is at about 170 to 180 °C. Fry sweet potato and pumpkin at the lower temperature.
- Fry five or six pieces per round. If you add more to the pot, the temperature drops and the vegetables soak up oil.
- Skim the batter crumbs off between rounds with a strainer. Burnt crumbs make the oil bitter.
- Put the finished tempura on a rack. On paper towels the underside goes soft faster.
Vegan or gluten-free
For vegan tempura, leave out the egg and use ice-cold sparkling mineral water. The crust turns thinner and more brittle. Tempura flour contains wheat. For a gluten-free batter, mix rice flour and cornstarch in equal parts and dip in tamari labeled gluten-free.
What to serve with it
For the classic dip tentsuyu, briefly heat 200 ml dashi with 50 ml soy sauce and 50 ml mirin and stir in freshly grated daikon radish. A quicker option is salt mixed with matcha or grated lemon zest. On rice with a sweet sauce it becomes tendon, in hot broth tempura udon. The Korean relative is called twigim.
