FreddieN wrote:
> "Versy Tyle" > wrote in message
> news >
>>Sorry if it's a FAQ, but how do you get tempura batter to be crisp, and
>
> not
>
>>like an omlette hanging off your chunks of pork? I had believed it was,
>>possibly, the way I stored the morcels before serving; but spacing them
>
> all
>
>>apart on a grill at moderate heat, is something that one would think would
>>dry them out - but still I feel it's too soggy; it seems that way the
>
> moment
>
>>I take them out of the (very hot) fat.
>>Thanks,
>>Versy
>>
>
>
> There is no such thing as Pork tempura in Japan.
> There is Tonkatsu which is Pork cutlet with Panko,
> but thats something else.
> Consequently you're not going to get any really good info
> from people who make "pork tempura".
> Tempura batter is chilled usually with Ice to create the thin cripsy batter
> covering that tempura is famous for. After dipping into the batter make sure
> you don't have excess batter. A thin crust is a must for decent Tempura.
> If you insist on using Pork make sure they are thin slices. Tempura cooks
> in a very short amount of time. People who know how to cook tempura don't
> even time it, they can tell by the change in the sound of the food frying,
> which occurs when the moisture content of the food being fried changes.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking! Pork tempura, how odd. But, I can
see it working if you slice it into thin julienned strips, or hammer it
out to tenderize it first.

Here's how I do tempura. Haven't done it in a couple years, so it's rusty.

First, mix a spoon of baking poweder into around a cup or two of flour.
Also, if you have potato starch, add a few spoons. Potato starch
seems to help with the crispness. It's not critical, though.

Then, crack an egg over it, and add ice water. Stir it up a little bit,
but leave it very lumpy. Keep adding water until it's the consistency
of a thick soup or a moderately thin gravy. Then add a couple ice
cubes. The lumps, baking powder, and melting ice will leave the batter
inconsistent, and prone to "explode" in the oil, making for a crispier
shell of batter.

Also, the thinness of the batter is pretty important. You want the
batter to form a shell, not a blob or a capsule. Keep it thin.

Then, my favorite things to add to the batter are julienned carrots
(nowadays, they use a slice, but I like the old-school julinenned),
green beans (raw), cleaned and flattened shrimp, sliced mushroom, shiso
leaf, gobo root julienned.

I put more than one fritter's worth in there, and pull out a few with my
fingers. Chopsticks work too, but fingers are faster, and there's a
trick later. Anyway, I plop in three or four fritters at a time.

The oil is usually clean oil, because I do this infrequently.
Sometimes, I'll add a little old oil to get it to crisp up faster, but,
that can sometimes backfire, and the oil will go dirty too soon.

If the oil gets too dirty and "wears out," you have to pour some off and
add clean oil. The oil matters a lot, because it is part of the flavor
of the tempura. (Think about it.) There is a special kind of strainer
to scoop off the bits of dough, before they carbonize and pollute the
oil. (These bits are good on soup, or as an unhealthy snack.) A
slotted spoon can do in a pinch, but the strainer is good to own.

If you like a really elaborate fritter, with all kinds of spidery spikes
of fried dough on it, you can achieve this with a little daring move.
Dip your fingers in the batter, and sprinkle bits of batter onto the
fritters as they fry. The motion I use is "flicking a snot off the tip
of my thumb, but with more fingers."

Do not put your fingers into the oil. LOL.

Also, the last trick is to drain the tempura on a rack, on a warmed up
plate. You need to let the vegetables' steam escape and not mess up the
greasy, crispy, fried dough.

The final fritter I make is the chopped onion fritter. I just add
chopped green onions to the remaning batter, and then make onion
fritters. These are really good, and I prefer them to some of the real
tempura.

The tempura aesthetic is different from other kinds of fried foods.
It's about the balance of the batter, the ingredient, and the oil. It's
almost as if the ingredient is there, mainly, to flavor the batter, and
the batter is there to be flavored by the oil. Then, when the tempura
is dunked into the sauce, the oil and sauce mix into something that will
flavor the rice. Then, alla sudden, it's also about the quality of the
rice.

It's kind of like sushi. You start out thinking it's about the fish.
Then you realize it's really about the rice too, because bad rice can
ruin sushi. Then, you think you've got it understood, and you get
pickier about the fish, because, well, there are so few ingredients,
that every ingredient matters.