Kakiage (Japanese vegetable fritters/tempura)

 

This is one Japanese dish we cook when there are vegetables leftover from cooking other dishes. The vegetable fritters are crispy and goes well with soba (buckwheat noodles, click here to know more) or udon (another type of noodle common in Japanese cuisine, click here to know more).

Ingredients:

There is no fixed list of vegetables to be used in this dish, but I do consider two things: 

1) colour combinations, to make the vegetable fritters attractive i.e.

Orange - carrot, pumpkin

Green - shiso leaves, coriander

Yellow - potato

Purple - onion

2) "sweet" vegetables like onions (caramelised onions are very sweet and tasty), pumpkins and sweet potatoes.

Tempura batter (for 12 pieces of kakiage, approximately 8cm x 8cm each)

85g plain flour 

15g corn starch 

1/2 tsp salt

150ml ice cold water

1 cold egg (50g nett weight - reduce water if your egg is bigger)

Method:

1. Cut the vegetables into thin strips, pat dry and mix them up in a mixing bowl. 

2. Heat up the oil in wok/deep frying pan to 180 deg celcius.

3. Prepare tempura batter when oil is heating up:

Mix plain flour, corn starch and salt in a bowl. Add water to egg, mix well and pour into the flour mixture. Use a pair of chopsticks to mix gently for a few seconds by drawing the number 8 a few times or drawing a few parallel lines while turning the bowl. Do not overmix the batter and it is ok to have lumps of flour in the batter. Note, if batter is too thin, add a bit (5g) of flour.

4. Sprinkle potato starch (or corn starch) into the vegetables and toss to mix. 

5. Transfer a small amount of vegetables to a small bowl and add a small amount of tempura batter (just enough to coat vegetables). Mix gently to coat the vegetables with the batter. Lower the vegetables gently into the hot oil. Fry the vegetables until they are crisp and golden brown. 

Notes:

- Add batter to vegetables only just before frying. 

- Pocking the vegetables with chopsticks during frying will result in a better texture for vegetable fritter.

6. Transfer the crisp vegetable fritter to a wire rack to drain excess oil. Pick up the crumbs from the oil after each batch of frying to keep the oil clean.