OCHIKERON Recipe: Light and Crispy Kakiage Tempura

October 2021(vol. 168)

Light and Crispy Kakiage Tempura (Japanese Vegetable Fritters Recipe)

Kakiage is Japanese vegetable fritters, sometimes with seafood. Vegetable strips are the main ingredients. Leftover vegetables are okay! Vegan/Vegetarian people can use Kombu Dashi broth for the dipping sauce ?

Using round aluminum foil molds, you can deep fry the vegetable strips with less batter coated. In this way Kakiage becomes very light and crispy ?

You can serve it with rice or Udon noodles for example, as a side dish. Or, you can put on top of rice or Udon noodles to make a bowl dish. It is up to you ?

Difficulty: Easy

Time: 15min

Number of servings: 4 pieces of 8cm (3inch) Kakiage

Ingredients

100g (3.5oz) onion slices
30g (1oz) carrot strips
30g (1oz) whole kernel corn

Tempura Batter
- 1/2 cup ice-cold water
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour
Tentsuyu (Tempura dipping sauce)
- 100ml (3.4fl.oz) Dashi broth
- 2 tbsp. Mirin (Sweet Sake)
- 2 tbsp. Soy Sauce

Vegetable Oil for deep frying

Directions:

Cut aluminum foil about 30cm (12inch) long, fold it into quarters lengthwise. Make a ring then fold the ends together to make 8cm (3inch) circle. (please see the video)
Place the cut vegetables in a bowl. Add 1 tbsp. of all purpose flour from Tempura Batter, then coat evenly with your hands.
Tempura Batter: Mix ice-cold water and all purpose flour. Make sure to use ice-cold water not to activate the gluten. The batter should be lumpy, do not over-mix.
Add the vegetables then toss lightly.
Heat 5cm (2inches) of oil in a pan to 170C (340F). Place one or two aluminum foil rings (depending on the size of the pan), then put 1/4 of the vegetables in each ring little by little to form into circles. When the bottoms are cooked, remove the rings, flip them over and cook thoroughly until crisp golden. Then drain well. (Do not deep fry too many at once.)
Tentsuyu: In a pan, bring Dashi broth, Mirin, and soy sauce to a boil. You can also microwave until it comes to a boil. **
You can eat with salt, with Tentsuyu, or serve on top of rice with Tentsuyu to make Tendon (Tempura rice bowl), etc… it is up to you.

**For tentsuyu, you can use Yamasa’s Konbu Tsuyu (3 times concentrated Konbu kelp seaweed soup stock). You just need to dilute it with hot water as directed on the package. This product is very convenient and it is available overseas!