Tempura is a typical Japanese dish based on seafood and / or vegetables, mixed separately and fried in boiling oil.
Recipe
Ingredients to fry for the tempura
- Peach products: the best known recipe - said ebi tempura - the one based on prawns (of various sizes) is undoubtedly other. Other recipes may include the frying of: squid, scallop, crab, ayu (sweet fish), conger eel, catfish, white fish (cod, haddock, pollack, coley, flounder, ray, manta ray, etc.), sharks (dogfish, blue shark, dogfish, dogfish, etc.), bivalve molluscs (mussels, oysters, etc. .), sea bass, perch, etc.
- Vegetables for tempura: also called yasai tempura, includes: bamboo shoots, bell pepper, pumpkins, carrot, eggplant, thistle, green beans, mushrooms (also shitake), okra, onion, potato, sweet potato, lotus root, leaves of shiso etc.
Tempura batter
The tempura batter is made with cold water (sometimes sparkling) and white wheat flour for cakes; on the contrary, ice, eggs, baking soda, chemical yeast, starch, oil and spices are optional ingredients. The batter is mixed briefly with chopsticks (or with a whisk) inside small containers; it is very important that the mixture is NOT uniform and that it has small lumps; in fact, with the help of the frying thermal shock, these grains will determine the typical appearance and consistency of Japanese tempura. This is a rather important detail that makes the difference between a good product and a poor one; not surprisingly, some food industries provide a type of flour specially designed for tempura which , thanks to the low gluten content, it prevents the batter from becoming rubbery (due to excessive activation of the elastic protein). In general, tempura does not require the use of breadcrumbs on the outside of the batter; on the other hand, the breading features a completely different recipe called Furai.
Fried Tempura
The tempura is fried in very hot oil (160-180 ° Celsius) and for a short time (a few seconds for leafy vegetables and a few minutes for large pieces, such as pancakes. kakiage).
The most commonly used frying fats today are vegetable fats, especially canola oil (obtained from suitably selected varieties of rapeseed); in the most refined Japanese restaurants certain oils of the Japanese tradition are still used today, such as sesame and tea seeds. Before cooking, shrimp, squid and vegetables with thick skin are cut on the surface to prevent them from bursting in the boiling oil.
The tempura batter fragments (Tenkasu) are promptly removed from the oil (by means of a skimmer or ami jakushi), in order to prevent them from burning and deteriorating the cooking fat; sometimes, these residues are destined to accompany other dishes.
Nutritional Characteristics
Tempura is a high-calorie food, rich in fat and with a lower component of proteins and carbohydrates. The content of these last two energetic nutrients, as well as that of fiber, cholesterol, vitamins and mineral salts, basically depends on the type of food that makes up the tempura (vegetable and / or animal).
It is "true that the portion of tempura" should "be very small, for example, in the case of shrimp tempura, about 3-5 pieces each are calculated. However, it remains a completely inadvisable recipe in case of overweight.
A final clarification should be made on the type of fat used for frying; among all, the most advisable is undoubtedly that of peanut. It is not a traditional Japanese oil (like that of sesame or tea seeds), but it has a greater resistance to heat and as such deteriorates less easily. Poor quality oils such as fractionated or hydrogenated ones contribute to worsening the metabolic impact of the dish which, in this case, becomes inadvisable even in case of hypercholesterolemia.
Tempura service
Tempura is commonly served hot with daikon grated (a white root).
Often, in Japan, tempura is used as a decorative or accompanying ingredient, served over bowls of soba you hate udon. The most commonly paired sauce is the tentsuyu (dashi + mirin + shoyu); green tea sauces or dips are also not uncommon yuzu.
A particular type of tempura is the kakiage, in which the vegetables are cut into strips and the fishery products are processed to form small meatballs. The don buriinstead, it is a typical recipe that includes a bed of rice gohan on which the mixed tempura is placed.
Origins and Etymology
Contrary to what one might believe, despite being a traditional Japanese dish, tempura has extra-Japanese origins. It was introduced by the Portuguese in the 16th century AD, particularly active and numerous in the city of Nagasaki (founded by the same in 1549). Originally, tempura was a popular food, available at street vendors (yatai) since the Genroku era; today, it is still very present in Japanese food culture and is often consumed in soba dishes offered in traditional kiosks.
The term tempura derives from the word "tempora", which in Latin means "times" or "period of time" (used by missionaries to refer to the Lenten period). "Quattro tempora" refers to the feast days when Catholics must abstain from the consumption of red meat and eat only fish or vegetables.
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