I always loved tempura, but never thought about fixing it. I was reading through my cookbooks looking for uses for alternative flours, for instance rice flour. Imagine my surprise when I found that tempura batter is traditionally made with rice flour. The recipe I have from “Joy of Cooking” also called for flat beer but a lack of anything remotely resembling beer in the house meant consulting with a friend who cooks to see if she thought water would work or if I needed to find another alternative. Water was the verdict.
I have no pictures of the results as we ate the evidence!
Tempura Batter
1-1/3 cup rice flour or all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 Tablespoon melted butter or vegetable oil
2 beaten egg yolks (reserve the whites for later)
Combined the above together, mixing well. Then add gradually, stirring constantly:
3/4 cup flat beer (or water)
Once all is combined well, cover the bowl with plastic and let it rest in the refrigerator covered for 3 to 12 hours. Immediately before you want to use it, beat the egg whites until they are stiff, and then fold into the batter.
Heat oil to 360F and dip vegetables or fish or shrimp or scallops into the batter and then fry until lightly browned. Serve with soy sauce. Vegetables such as mushrooms don’t need to be blanched first, but things like asparagus, cauliflour, broccoli, green beans, carrots, onions, etc, need to be. Make sure any foods are dried off before dipping into the batter.
This much batter will coat 2 cups of ingredients.
Totally delicious! Burp.