Tempura Soba Food

CLASSIC TEMPURA SOBA NOODLES (天ぷらそば)

Steps:

• First, deshell your prawns leaving the tail on, and remove the veins.
• Put the prawns in a bowl with 2 pinches of salt and a tsp of corn starch and rub it over the surface of the prawns. The salt is to dehydrate them so they fry better and the corn starch helps clean them out.
• After a few minutes run the prawns under cold running water to rinse off the salt and corn starch, you will notice how clean they look!
• Dry them off with kitchen paper and transfer them to your chopping board.
• Next cut the tails. Place the shrimp on its side and with the tail folded in half and trim it diagonally. The pointy tip should be cut off and be the shorter part of the diagonal. (This stops oil from splattering out when it's frying and it looks nicer too.)
• Turn the prawn so the underbelly is facing up, and make diagonal incisions along the whole body. The incisions should be about 1cm apart and go about 1/2 way through the prawn.
• You should be able to lay out the prawn flat and straight.
• Repeat for the rest of your prawns.
• Preheat your oil to 180C (356F).
• Take the chilled water and sparkling water from the fridge and pour them into a bowl.
• Add one medium chilled egg and whisk. Remove any foam with a spoon.
• Take the flour and starch from the fridge and add it to the bowl one third at a time. Mix roughly between each addition. (It's fine to have lumps.)
• Dry your prawns and vegetables, then lightly coat them in potato starch or plain flour. Dust off any excess.
• Test your oil by adding a drop of batter, if it floats and sizzles it's ready to start cooking.
• Dip each ingredient in the batter and then place it in the oil. Be careful not to overcrowd the pot. (I recommend cooking each type of ingredient together in batches rather than mixing them. Example: Shiso leaves batch, aubergine batch, shrimp batch etc.) Keep the batter in the fridge between batches.
• Once the batter puffs up and becomes crispy, remove the tempura from the pot before they become golden. Place on a wire rack to allow the excess oil to drop off.
• Repeat until all your tempura is cooked.
• Boil your soba noodles in a separate pot, follow the instructions on the packaging.
• Bring 1 litre of dashi to a boil and then add 5 tbsp soy sauce and 2 tbsp mirin. Allow to boil for 2-3 minutes.
• Turn off the heat and add 1/2 tsp salt. Mix.
• Once the soba noodles are ready, pour them into a colander and then run them under cold water and divide them into serving bowls.
• Pour the broth over the top of the noodles.
• Place the tempura on top of the noodles and then garnish with spring onions and kamaboko.
• For an added kick, sprinkle with Japanese shichimi powder.
• Enjoy!

TENSOBA (TEMPURA SOBA RECIPE)

Steps:

• Follow this recipe to properly prepare fried tempura.
• Follow this recipe to properly prepare fresh soba noodles.
• To serve this dish, add the tempura on top of your chilled noodles and serve it with a side dipping sauce of tentsuyo.

TEMPURA SOBA

Steps:

• To make shrimp tempura pull off the outhershell.Keep the last segment of shell and tail tip on.
• Devein the back of shrimp with skewer.
• Make a couple of slits underside.Hold the shrimp with both hand bend it backward to make it straight.
• Heat the oil to 340F for tempura and boil the water in a large pot for boil noodles.
• In a bowl put tempura flour add cold water and stir it dont mix too much.
• When oil is getting close to 340F put some flour and coat the shrimp and dip it in batter and fry(usually 2-3min).
• Put soba noodle into the boiling water boil it until cooked(usually 5min).
• While boilling combine the noodle soup base and water if you want hot noodles,warm up it.
• Strain away the water, if you want to cold noodles rince them in running water.
• Serve the noodles and Tempura with green onion with wasabi,and mentsuyu.

TEMPURA

Steps:

• Combine the dashi, soy sauce, mirin, and sugar in a small saucepan and bring it to a boil. Then, lower the heat and let it simmer until the sugar is completely dissolved. Remove from the heat and set aside.
• Follow these instructions to straighten the shrimp, so it looks gorgeous. Pat the shrimp dry and make sure the moisture is completely removed from the shrimp.
• Cut all the vegetables (except the eggplant) ¼-inch thick. For the eggplant, cut off and discard the stem and calyx, then cut it in half lengthwise. With the cut side flat on the cutting board, cut the eggplant lengthwise into very thin slices (about ⅛ inch or 3 mm), being careful to leave the bottom tip intact by 1 inch (2.5 cm) so the slices stay connected. Then, gently press down on the slices to fan them out. Repeat with the other eggplant half.
• In a medium-sized pot, heat 1½ inches to 2 inches (3-5 cm) of the oil to 350°F (180°C).
• While the oil is heating up, start preparing the tempura batter. Add the egg and the iced water into a 2-cup measuring cup (or any bowl). Whisk the egg mixture vigorously and discard the foam on the surface.
• Sift the flour into a large bowl. Slowly pour the egg mixture into the flour. Mix the batter, but do not overmix; it's okay to leave some lumps in the batter. Keep the batter cold at all times (store it in the refrigerator if needed). Make the batter right before deep-frying to avoid activating the wheat gluten.
• Check the oil temperature with a thermometer to make sure the oil is 350°F (180°C). You can also use wooden chopsticks to check; when you dip your chopsticks in the oil and see small bubbles forming, it's ready for deep-frying. Please note that sweet potatoes and kabocha require a lower cooking temperature (320ºF/160℃). If you want to read more deep-frying tips, please read this post.
• Deep-fry starting with the cleaner and less astringent ingredients. For example, the cooking order would be shiso first, followed by the mushrooms, eggplant, shrimp, sweet potatoes, and kabocha. Make sure your ingredients are dry before dipping them in the batter; if they're wet, dry them with a paper towel first. While the tempura is frying, the moisture from the ingredients will evaporate and the tempura will become crispy. However, if the ingredients have extra moisture, the tempura will become soggy after deep-frying.
• When the oil reaches the right temperature, dip one piece of vegetable or shrimp in the batter, let the excess drip off for a second or two, and very gently place it into the hot oil. Continue dipping and adding one piece at a time. For the shrimp, sprinkle some flour or potato starch (or cornstarch) over it before dipping to help the tempura batter adhere. For the shiso leaves, sprinkle a bit of sifted flour on the back of the leaf, dip only the back of the leaf into the batter, and deep-fry for 15 seconds. The flour acts as a glue and the batter tends to stay on the ingredients better.
• Deep-fry the ingredients until golden brown. Do not crowd the pot because the oil temperature will drop quickly. Remember, your ingredients should take up no more than about half of the oil surface area at any one time. Here's the rough cooking time for each of the ingredients: Shiso (350ºF/180ºC, 20-30 seconds), mushrooms (350ºF/180ºC, 1 min), eggplant (350ºF/180ºC, 1 min), shrimp (350ºF/180ºC, 2 minutes), sweet potatoes (320ºF/160℃, 3 mins), and kabocha (320ºF/160℃, 2-3 mins). Note that sweet potatoes and kabocha require a lower cooking temperature than the rest of the tempura ingredients.
• Transfer the tempura to a wire rack or a plate lined with a paper towel to drain the excess oil.
• Between batches, clean the oil by scooping up the crumbs (called tenkasu), which will burn and turn the oil darker if left in the pot.
• Grate the daikon and squeeze the liquid out. Prepare 3-4 Tbsp of warm tentsuyu in individual small bowls and serve the grated daikon on the side.
• Put 1 Tbsp of the grated daikon in the sauce and dip the tempura in the sauce to enjoy.
• You can keep any leftovers in an airtight container and store them in the refrigerator for up to 2 days and in the freezer for 2 weeks. Reheat the tempura at 350ºF (180ºC) in the oven until warm and crisp.