Homemade tempura

Today Y Sensei invited me to her house for a cooking lesson in the art of tempura.

An array of vegetables were used, including small tasty shimeji mushrooms, pumpkin, eggplant, kumara, okra and chillis, as well as prawns.

One beats icecubes, water and tempura mix (predominately cornflour) together until thick, tosses in the vegies & c , smothering them nicely before plopping them into a frying pan half-filled with bubbling hot oil. Very quick and easy! This was served with a light, tangy dipping sauce or salt, and a bowl of rice washed down with chilled tea. Yumsome! Being one of the few oily Japanese foods, I couldn't finish a full plate so had the leftovers for dinner tonight with kimchi noodles.

An interesting aspect of tempura is that of kakiyage, which is a patty of onions, carrots and small shrimps. It surely has an Indian cousin in the spicy fritter, the bhaji, but minus the spices and chilli.

Oishi des ne!