Tempura

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For the paint and art technique, see tempera.

Tempura

Tempura Ice Cream

Tempura (てんぷら or 天麩羅, tenpura^?) refers to classic Japanese deep fried batter-dipped seafood and vegetables. The batter is made of ice cold water, flour, and eggs (or egg yolks). Small dry bite-sized pieces of food are dipped in flour, then in batter, and then deep fried for 2-3 minutes. In high-class restaurants, sesame oil or a mixture of sesame and other cooking oils is used.

Western chefs frequently include tempura dishes on their menus but seldom with 'authentic' results. This largely stems from a misunderstanding about mixing the batter which, in classic cookery must be beaten until homogeneous. Good tempura batter is mixed with chopsticks, but only for a few seconds. This leaves numerous lumps in the mixture and results in the unique tempura structure when cooked. Also crucial is that tempura batter be made freshly, with ice-cold water, in small batches.

Batter-coated deep frying was introduced to the Japanese by Portuguese missionaries during the 16th century. The word tempura derives from the Portuguese missionaries' custom of eating fish during Lent due to the Catholic proscription against eating meat during this period: in Latin, "ad tempora quadragesimae", meaning "in the time of Lent".

Cooked bits of tempura are then either dipped in tentsuyu sauce (roughly three parts dashi, one part mirin, and one part shoyu) or sprinkled with scant sea salt before eating. Mixtures of powdered green tea and salt or yuzu and salt are also used. Tempura is commonly served with grated daikon and is best eaten hot immediately after frying.

Tendon

In Japan, restaurants specializing in tempura are called tenpura-ya and range from inexpensive fast food chains to highly revered and very expensive five-star restaurants. Many restaurants offer tempura as part of a set meal or a bento (lunch box).

Often cooked in this fashion are shrimp, squid, shiitake mushroom, sweet potato, yam, kabocha squash, burdock, carrot, a wide variety of fish, and many others. Things not generally served as tempura include rice and other cereals, processed foods such as tofu (although some versions of agedashi dofu resemble tempura), and fruits. Notable exceptions are ice cream and banana.

Tempura is also used in combination with other foods. When served over soba (buckwheat noodles), it is called tempura soba or tensoba. Tempura is also served as a donburi dish where tempura shrimp and vegetables are served over steamed rice in a bowl (tendon) and on top of udon soup (Tempura Udon).

Taiwanese vendor frying Tempura at Shilin Night Market in Taipei, Taiwan.

Common ingredients include:

Seafood: Prawn, Shrimp, squid, scallop, anago (conger eel), ayu (sweetfish), crab
Vegetables: Green pepper, kabocha squash, eggplant, carrot, sweet potato, potato, renkon (lotus root), shiitake mushroom, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, okra. Also, broccoli, zucchini and asparagus are seen in North American Japanese restaurants.
Other: Ice cream, banana, maraschino cherry

[edit] Tempura in Taiwan

In the northern part of Taiwan, tempura is also known as 天婦羅 or 甜不辣 (tianbula) and can be found at night markets such as Shilin Night Market and Keelung Temple Night Market where it is famous. The ingredients and method used for making Taiwanese tempura differ almost completely from Japanese tempura and the resemblance between them is merely the name. In the southern part of Taiwan, however, it is known as 黒輪 or 和田 and is more the counterpart to Oden. Oden is generally known as 關東煮 or "Kwantung cooking" in reference to the Kwantung (Kantō) region of Japan.