Tips for cooking Tempura?

The trick of good tempura is the large temperature difference between the oil and the tempura. Care therefore that all ingredients are ice-cold (keep in the freezer in between).

Heat the oil well. Mix the flour and the baking powder (I have always a jar with tempura mixture ready for use).

Add just before you start frying the beaten cold egg white and as much ice-cold water until an yoghurt thickness mixture forms (leave litte lumps).

Coat the shrimps with the mixture and deep-fry them golden brown.

Keep between frying rounds the batter in the fridge.

Serve hot with for example chivesauce.

Some other tips:

Try using kudzu flour, or powder, available at health food stores, instead of (or as half of) your wheat flour. A cookbook from the 70s suggested this and it's the only way I can make restaurant quality tempura at home.

When I worked at a Japanese restaurant, we would use a cap full or two of sake in each batch. Apparently, this is a necessity.

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Tips for Making Crispy Tempura:

Tip 1: Ice

Use ice water for the batter. This is really important to prevent the batter from absorbing too much oil. (Do not make the batter ahead of time.)

Tip 2: Batter

Try not to over mix the batter and not to coat ingredients with the batter too much.

Tip 3: Frying Order

If you are frying both seafood and vegetables, fry vegetables first. Then, fry seafood. Fry vegetables at 340F degree and fry seafood at 350F degree.

Tip 4: Oil Temperature

To check the temperature of frying oil, drop a little batter into the oil. If the batter comes up right away instead of sinking to the bottom of the pan, it's about 360 F degree. If the batter goes halfway to the bottom and comes up, it's about 340F degree. This is said to be the right temperature to fry tempura.

Tip 5: Shrimp

Make a couple incisions on the stomach side of each shrimp so that it stays straight. Then, pick it up by the tail and dip the body part in the batter. ( Tempura Shrimp Recipe)

Tip 6: Squid

Remove the thin skin and lightly flour it before dipping in tempura batter so that it won't splash much.

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The secret to tempura's crispiness is in its batter coating or more precisely, the lumps, which are apt to form in the tenuous mixture of egg, ice water and flour. Because these ingredients remain unmixed, each morsel dipped to the bottom of the batter is coated in an egg-water-flour sequence. The batter must be made in small batches and not left to stand. If the flour is mixed too thoroughly moreover, the result will be an armorlike pancake casing, rather than the crispy coating the Japanese call a "cloak" or koromo. The Japanese claim that they can tell the difference between tempura made by a five-year "novice" and a 20-year veteran, so subtle is the chemistry at work in the tempura chef's powdery-ringed batter bowl.

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Use thick chopsticks or fork & stir the batter in criss-cross motion. Batter may be slightly lumpy. Do not use eggbeater.

Ideal amount of oil is two-thirds full in the pan. Drop batter to test the temperature. It is ready when the drop of batter floats back to the surface after descending only halfway to the bottom. If the drop of batter reaches the bottom, the oil is not hot enough.

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Tips for Making Crispy Tempura:

Tip 1: Ice

Use ice water for the batter. This is really important to prevent the batter from absorbing too much oil. (Do not make the batter ahead of time.)

Tip 2: Batter

Try not to over mix the batter and not to coat ingredients with the batter too much.

Tip 3: Frying Order

If you are frying both seafood and vegetables, fry vegetables first. Then, fry seafood. Fry vegetables at 340F degree and fry seafood at 350F degree.

Tip 4: Oil Temperature

To check the temperature of frying oil, drop a little batter into the oil. If the batter comes up right away instead of sinking to the bottom of the pan, it's about 360 F degree. If the batter goes halfway to the bottom and comes up, it's about 340F degree. This is said to be the right temperature to fry tempura.

Tip 5: Shrimp

Make a couple incisions on the stomach side of each shrimp so that it stays straight. Then, pick it up by the tail and dip the body part in the batter. ( Tempura Shrimp Recipe)

Tip 6: Squid

Remove the thin skin and lightly flour it before dipping in tempura batter so that it won't splash much.

Tempura Oil

Just use any kind of Veggie oil, make sure it doesn't have any transfats. The veggies you can do are entirely up to you, onion rings, broccoli, carrot slices are all very good.

The key to good tempura is the batter. You want it to be light and runny you aren't making fish sticks.

Here is a basic recipe similar to the one that I use1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup cornstarch

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg

2/3 cup ice water

Put the egg in Ice Water and mix with chopsticks. Don't mix it perfectly. Dump all of the dry ingredients in. Give it a few choppy mixes with chop sticks. Don't attempt to blend all of the items together. It has to be lumpy for a true tempura texture. Dip and then fry until golden brown.

Enjoy!

Veggie or canola oil. Any firm veggie will do and tempura is not a breading it's a thin batter that needs to be mixed in a ice bath(a bowl preferably metal inside of another bowl with very cold ice water the colder the better. Make sure oil is nice and hot but not to the point of smoking. you can par boil veggies if you choose but just let them cool before preparing but remember to use firm vegetables.

This Site Might Help You.

RE:

Tips for cooking Tempura?

What kind of oil to use? What kind of veggies can be done? What to bread it in?

Love tempura. Just bake it in vega oil.

Here are 3 of my favorite tempura recipes (also with vegetables and the batter):

http://www.jannekes.eu/oriental/index.html

Ohhhh Tempur is so awesome! I never thought about making it at home, but now I totally will. Here's a couple recipes I found, hope they help!

Veggie Tempura

2 pounds assorted sliced vegetables, such as eggplant, carrot, broccoli, zucchini and onions, patted dry

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 to 2 1/4 cups chilled seltzer or club soda

Vegetable oil, for frying

In a bowl whisk together flour and salt. Whisk in 1 cup seltzer, whisking until smooth, and let batter stand 10 minutes. If necessary, thin batter with enough remaining seltzer to reach consistency of crepe batter.

In a deep fat fryer, or heavy saucepan, heat vegetable oil to 375 degrees. Working in batches, dip vegetables in batter, shaking off excess. Fry until golden brown. Remove with slotted spoon or spider to sheet lined with paper towels to drain.

Shrimp & Veggie Tempura

Dipping sauce:

1/2 cup low-sodium soy sauce

2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar

1 lemon, juiced

Tempura:

1 pound large shrimp, peeled with tails on

1 cup rice flour, plus 1 cup for dusting

1 cup cold seltzer water

2 large egg yolks

1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

Kosher salt

Peanut oil, for frying

2 red bell peppers, sliced into strips

2 avocados, peeled and sliced thick

1 lemon, sliced very thin

12 green beans

8 shiitake mushrooms, halved

4 scallions

Make the dipping sauce: Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Set aside to allow the flavors to develop.

Prepare the shrimp: Butterfly the shrimp by cutting down the back, being careful not to cut all the way through. Open the shrimp like a book and rinse well with cold water.

Make the Tempura batter: Put the flour in a bowl and whisk in the seltzer to get out all the lumps. Add the egg yolks and blend it in well. Flavor with sesame oil and a pinch of salt. The batter should be the consistency of heavy cream.

Time to fry: Heat about 2 inches of peanut oil to 375 degrees F in a wok or deep skillet. Dry the shrimp and vegetables well. Dust them with flour to soak up any remaining moisture and shake off the excess. Dip them into the batter one by one. Drop 4 or 5 pieces at a time in the hot oil, do not overcrowd the pan. Fry until golden brown, turning once, about 3 minutes. To keep the oil clean between batches, skim off the small bits of batter that float in the oil. Remove the fried shrimp and vegetables from the oil and drain on paper towels; season them with salt. Serve with the dipping sauce.

Add some lard to the oil for crispier tempura.

Vegetables - green pepper, eggplant, onion, kabocha (pumpkin), sweet potato, okra - whatever you like just avoid the really wet one like tomato although green tomatoes might work or the green leafy ones

First lightly covered it in flour, then dip it in the egg bath the covered it with panco (Japanese style bread crumbs).