Lemon Tempura Vegetables with Ginger Plum Sauce
Equipment
- Fryer or pot to fry in
Ingredients
- 1 to 2 Lb Fresh Vegetables, green beans are a must, the rest is up to you: Eggplant, zucchini, carrots, Mushrooms, Broccoli, Onions, or more
- 1 Lb Rice Flour May substitute 1/2 AP flour and 1/2 cornstarch
- 1 Large Egg
- 1 Bottle lager or pilsner beer, the lighter the better
- 1 Whole Lemon, just the zest and juice
- Salt and Pepper to taste
- For Dip:
- 1 Cup Whole Fresh Plums, pit removed
- 1 Tbsp Chopped Fresh Ginger
- 2 Cup Seasoned Rice wine vinegar or Mirin
- 1/4 Cup Tamari Soy sauce
- 2 Tbsp Honey
- Oil to fry
Instructions
- Make the plum sauce. Cut the plums into one inch pieces. Saute the plums and ginger, in a little bit of oil, over medium high heat until they begin to soften and break down. Add the mirin or rice wine vinegar and bring to a boil. Taper off to a simmer and cook until the liquid has reduced by about half and the plums are falling apart. Add the honey and tamari. Then blend until smooth. You can do this with an immersion blender in the pot or in a stationary blender. Cool down for service.
- Set up your frying station: Put at least 3 inches of oil in a pot on a stove or fill your frying machine to the proper level. Get your equipment together: Frying spiders, tongs, bowl to mix batter in, paper towels and pans or plates to dry the tempura on.
- Cut your vegetables. Green beans can be whole. For best results, try cutting everything in similar sizes so they will cook at about the same rate.
- make the batter: Whisk your egg. Add the flour, lemon juice and zest. and Begin whisking. Pour the beer in a little at a time, and continue whisking until the batter is at a consistency you like. You may want to add the whole beer or stop when it is a little thicker. Adding the whole beer will result in a pretty thin batter. Season with salt and pepper.
- Heat the oil to about 350 degrees. If you don't have a thermometer, watch the oil. It will move freely about. drop a little batter in. If it bubbles up and forms a ball, your temperature should be about right. You can adjust the flame too. remember. when you add food in, the temperature of the oil will drop, so you can regulate the temperature by adjusting the flame.
- Dip your vegetables in the batter one at a time. Shake off extra batter and bring the dipped item to the oil. Swirl the item a little bit until it begins to float up a little bit. Then, let go and let it fry. repeat this step until you have an amount of vegetables in the pot that you feel comfortable keeping an eye on. You will notice that the underside of the vegetables will begin to get more color than the top. Flip the vegetables at this point to get an even color. Cook until golden brown, remove from the oil onto paper towels. Repeat this process until all the vegetables are done.
Notes
You can use the same batter for meats, fish, or other items as well. Just remember to cut the pieces small enough that they will cook all the way through. If you have thicker items, you may want to drop the oil temperature back a bit to allow time to cook all the way through without burning or getting too dark.