Japanese · Starter
Tempura
Straightened, glass-crisp prawns with a barely-there lace batter — the benchmark tempura for a charter tasting menu
- Prep
- 20 min
- Cook
- 10 min
- Serves
- 4
Ingredients
- Large prawns, shell on — 12 (about 400 g)
- Weak (cake) flour — 100 g
- Potato starch — 20 g
- Ice-cold sparkling water — 160 ml
- Egg yolk — 1
- Neutral oil — 1.5 L
- Flour for dusting — 20 g
- Matcha — 2 g
- Flaky salt — 6 g
- Lemon — 1
Method
- Peel prawns leaving tail fans; press out moisture from the fans with the knife spine.
- Make 4 shallow belly cuts per prawn and press flat to straighten.
- Grind matcha with flaky salt.
- Heat oil to 175°C.
- Whisk yolk into sparkling water, add flour and starch in one go, and mix with chopsticks 5 seconds — lumps must remain.
- Dust prawns in flour, drag through batter, and fry 3 at a time for 2 minutes, flicking extra batter over them for lace.
- Drain vertically on a rack 30 seconds; salt immediately.