Today I was feeling very ambitious and decided to cook up Darren and I a late night snack of Tempura. Despite my very open enthusiasm on starting this challenge, I had a slightly anxious feeling that this wasn't just going to be a case of 'dipping shrimp and/or vegetable pieces into a pan' so with bated breath.. I began with the cooking.
The instructions were really quite specific and I was concerned over their call for 'ice water' and 'fresh water shrimp'. I had already failed on one count having purchased frozen shrimp and scallops from the store rather than fresh, so hoped the sushi-gods were looking down on me favorably as I attempted to whip up the tempura.
So, to start, I blended the tempura flour with the 'ice' cold water and left in a second bowl of ice water to keep chilled. I then heated up a bowl of hot hot hot oil.
I then cut up a load of veggies and with the scallops and shrimp on hand, I dipped each piece leisurely into the batter and then popped them straight in the oil.
I knew we had a problem when the batter immediately fell off the broccoli and formed a thick crust on the bottom of the pan [nb. Darren was working at the time and thankfully not able to see what what happening to his pots]
I managed to cobble together a few 'tempura-ish' pieces and presented them to Darren with great gusto. To be fair, he was very very kind and managed to eat some, but It was a little bit like eating oily veggies that smelt like fish. To redeem myself, I cooked up the rest of my ingredients in a quick fire stir fire ( I am [incidentally] very good at making stir fries)
So all was not lost in the pot of boiling oil.. but at least I gave it a good go. Better luck next time ( or get take out...).
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