Simple homemade Tempura

Tempura may be sinful. Being Japanese, I eat it at least once a month to satisfy my hunger of crispy tasty deep fries. Good Tempura is crispy outside and vegetables inside are tender. The key to make crispy Tempura is to make cold batter and heat oil hot enough but not too hot.Be careful treating hot oil when you make Tempura as you would make any deep fried food.
I usually make Tempura batter with egg, unbleached flour, ice and water, vegetable oil. The recipe is very simple. Bell peppers, mushrooms, potatoes, Kabocha pumpkin are good to make Tempura. If you use fish, shrimp, meat or Tofu, dry them with paper towel and coat them with flour before dipping into the batter. I picked Mint and tender dandelion leaves and made Tempura. Mint was good and Dandelion was bit bitter. If you have potatoes, onion, carrot, and green beans or Asparagus, julienne them mix together and put them into the batter. I rolled Scoop the mixture with spoon and drop into the oil to make colorful vegetable Tempura. I usually use thick heavy frying pan with 2 inches depth and fill it with vegetable oil half full. I often eat Tempura with the Tonkatsu sauce such as Bulldog or Ikari brand rather than fancy Tempura sauce served at the restaurant.
Here is Japanese home-style Tempura recipe:
Ingredients:
1 cup of flour more or less
1 cup ice and water combined
1 egg
Pinch of Salt (optional)
Vegetable oil (I use soy bean oil or Canola oil)
Vegetables
Cooking instructions:
1. Prepare vegetables by chopping onion, cutting sweet potatoes; take the ends and cut green beans and etc.
2. Pour the half full of the oil to a deep heavy frying pan. Turn on the stove to high and heat the oil.
3. Mix an egg and ice and water and add flour. Mix them together lightly to make batter. Over-mixing will generate too much gluten.
4. Test oil temperature by dropping tempura batter into the oil. If it sinks, the oil is too cool. If the batter goes down the bottom and float in 3 seconds, the oil is ready. If the batter floats on the surface of the oil, it is too hot.
5. When the oil is hot and ready, coat the vegetables with the batter and drop gently into the hot oil to fry. Several vegetables can be cooked at once. However, too many vegetables lower the oil temperature.
6. Take the Tempura out of the oil when the batter is crispy and ready. Place on the plate with paper towel to remove excess oil.
7. Clean the oil by taking the remaining batter out of the oil.
8. Repeat 5 and 6.
9. Dish the Tempura and dip into Tonkatsu sauce and eat it.

The arm of a Tempura cook

This photo of my arm shows oil spattered burn spots. Hajime at Mashiko joked about an earlier time in his career, when his arm had burned marks which were cause from making Tempura. John said he had a similar experience and made his arm protection by cutting his long sock.
I often make Tempura at home in a regular frying pan, and I hardly ever burn my arm. The pan used at home is shallow, where as at Mashiko, I use a deep fryer. I dropped vegetables with Tempura batter a bit too high above the oil in the fryer from my nervous unsteady hand. This caused the oil to splash burn spots on my arm.
My husband told me that he had seen people’s arms like mine. He thought that the people were drug addicts, as they had burn marks on their arm similar to the ones on my arm. He was surprised to learn that maybe those people where really cooks working at a deep fryer instead of drug addicts like he thought.
I didn’t know that people with drug addiction problem had skin problems. I found some image of arms badly spotted by drug addiction. Hopefully soon I am able to fry Tempura without splashing oil. I should wear long sleeve shirts or cover my arm.
When you see someone with small blisters on one of his/her arms, it may be caused from splash from the deep fryer not from drug addiction.
<----The photo shows my potential arm protection. Left: Japanese farmer's arm cover, Right: Leg warmer