May 20, 2011

Summary of Tempura Making 2/天ぷら作りのまとめ2

Batter:
I like the soft and fluffy texture of tempura made with batter of water, whole egg (or yolk only), and wheat flour, because such tempura is what I grew up with. For those who prefer hard and crunchy tempura, the type of tempura you can buy at any supermarket in Japan, which remains hard and crunchy even after it has cooled, premade tempura mix is recommended.

In particular, this tempura mix for business use is quite impressive.

You can see the difference between a piece of prawn tempura made with this mix (left) and another made with flour + egg (right) here.

This photo is from this article. 11th and subsequent photos are related to tempura.

Alternatively, you can add up to 20-30% starch, such as katakuriko (potato starch), to get a similar effect.

Some people recommend adding some baking powder to the batter (1 tsp per 200 ml or 110 g flour) to make crispy tempura. Others recommend using three parts water and one part carbonated water (or beer!) instead water to make crispy tempura. Other ingredients some people add to make crispy tempura include shochu (Japanese distilled spirit), sake, vinegar, and even mayonnaise. I can't comment on them because I have never tried any of them.

Dusting:

This site (Japanese only), created by Tempura Okamoto, a tempura restaurant located in Tachikawa, Tokyo, is a wealth of information about tempura.

For example, this page (Japanese only) lists various vegetables, whether to deep-fry them for a long time, how thick the batter should be, and whether to dust them (where to dust, cut ends and peeled portions only or entirely). If you have any questions about particular vegetables, post a question here, as a comment.

To be continued.

衣:
私は、水、全卵(または黄身だけ)、小麦粉でできた衣で作った、柔らかく、ふわっとした天ぷらを昔から食べていたので、そのほうが好きですが、日本のスーパーならどこでも買えるような、硬く、カリッとした天ぷら(冷めても硬く、カリッとした天ぷら)のほうが好きな人には、天ぷら粉のほうがお薦めです。

特に、この業務用の天ぷら粉は、すごいです。

この天ぷら粉で作った天ぷら(左)と小麦粉+卵で作った天ぷら(右)の違いがここで分かります。

この写真は、この記事にあります。11番目以降の写真が天ぷら関連の写真です。

または、でん粉(例えば片栗粉)を2~3割、足せば、似たような効果が得られます。

カリッとした天ぷらを作るため、衣にベーキングパウダーを入れる(200 ml、110 gの小麦粉に小さじ1)を入れることを薦める人もいます。また、水の代わりに、水と炭酸水(またはビール!)を3:1で使うことを薦める人もいます。さらに、焼酎、お酒、お酢、さらにマヨネーズも薦める人もいます。どれも使ったことがないので、コメントできませんが。

打ち粉:

天ぷら岡本という、東京都立川市にある天ぷら屋さんが作ったこのサイト (Japanese only)は、天ぷらに関する情報の宝庫です。

例えば、このページでは、様々な野菜を長く揚げるか否か、衣の濃度、打ち粉をするか否か(切り口、皮をむいた部分だけか、全体か)が分かります。或る野菜に関して質問があれば、コメントして質問して下さい。

続く。

4 comments:

Kiki said...

Yes, the right batter is really something. Some like it crispy, some like it rich and chewy, fluffy or firm. One of my favorite batters for vegetables is chickpea-flour batter (indian cuisine). But this works for vegetables as carrots, brokkoli, summer squashs only. I would not use it for shrimps. Small fish are delicious fried while covered with a thin rye-batter. Tastes a little bit rough.
The elders are blossoming. I will make batter-fried elderberry-blossoms (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sambucus_nigra) on sunday - it has to be a wheat flour, milk and egg batter.
Thank you for your information about tempura making. I appreciate it very much.

Hiroyuki said...

Kiki: Rye? That sounds interesting! I want to try buckwheat flour and other usual ingredients in batter some day.

fred said...

hiroさん, thanks for the summary!
I just realize this topic today(笑)

Hiroyuki said...

fred: And, don't forget to read Summary of Tempura Making 3!