Tempura shrimp, all ready to eat!
Tempura is the perfect party snack. Everyone loves tempura - it's more or less healthy (since it is mostly made with vegetables), most everyone likes fried foods, and yet it's not heavy like many fried foods are... it's actually pretty light! Most anything can be tempura fried. Typically sliced vegetables and shrimp are the normal tempura fare, but meats, sushi (yum!), and even bananas can be tempura fried! (Just make sure you get an underripe banana, because it softens when you fry it so ripe bananas will fall apart. Don't believe me? Look at this post on my website where I used a tempura fried banana in sushi!)
I originally posted this tempura recipe on my website, SushiDay.com.
Ingredients
- assorted ingredients to tempura fry (shrimp, onion, carrot, broccoli, banana, etc.)
- 1 cup ice cold water
- 1 large egg
- 3/4 cup flour
- 1/8 tsp baking soda
- cooking oil
Cooking Directions
- In a medium bowl, mix the water and the egg.
- In a separate bowl, mix the flour and baking soda.
- Stir the flour mix into the egg mix. It's okay if the batter is a little lumpy.
- Stick the batter in the fridge while you prepare the other ingredients.
- If you are using shrimp, peel, de-vein, and wash the shrimp . Make some small cuts across the belly of the shrimp, to keep it from curling when you cook it.
- If you are using vegetables, clean them and cut them into your desired size. Try not to use very soft ingredients, as they will soften as they cook (softer ingredients tend to fall apart when you take it out of the oil).
- Heat the oil in a frying pan. The oil should be hot enough that when you drip batter in it, the drops come to the top immediately.
- Coat your ingredients in the batter. Place the coated ingredients in the hot oil, turning when the bottom side is browned.
- Place the fried ingredients on a paper towel to drain. Serve immediately.
