Tempura Baby

Ever since high school I have been an avid sushi fan. Just ask anyone who knows me....it is my favorite food and I love sharing my knowledge of the amazing Japanese cuisine with anyone who is willing to listen. I have turned on so many friends to this delicious dish, getting them over their fear of raw fish and opening their world to the taste of tempura. Whether it is cooked sushi, raw sushi, or tempura, I am all about it! One of my favorite sushi rolls back home is called the bagel roll; its salmon, cream cheese, and rice wrapped up in seaweed and then deep friend tempura style! There is just nothing that can quite compare to the burst of warm fresh fish flavor combined with the velvety cream cheese that explodes in your mouth as you eat it!



Well, with this being my favorite food it has always been a curiosity for me as to how tempura is made. Well, my questions were answered as I traveled to Japan and an amazing Japanese woman taught me the tricks of the trade. She showed me all the steps: from the plate of cut up fresh vegetables and fish, the tempura batter she had prepared, to then submerging the vegetables in the batter and frying them in oil in a frying pan. I watched with my mouth literally wide open as I could not believe something I had always wanted to learn how to do was being taught to me at that very moment! Let alone in the most authentic manner from a Japanese woman who undoubtedly had been making tempura for years.

I have kept that knowledge in my back pocket for 7 months now, too scared to venture out on my own attempt to try to make it, until last night. I have seen a bag of tempura mix (or what I figured was such) for months now in the grocery store near my house. I always figured it would be a horrible disaster if I attempted to make it, so I never bought it. I'm not sure what came over me this week as I went to the store, but with some new found courage I picked up the bag along with a bunch of vegetables and fresh fish, paid the clerk, and decided GAME ON.

It was time to get in touch with my Japanese alter ego that is such a sushi fanatic and has always wanted to learn how to make tempura. So I chopped up a few vegetables that could be my guinea pigs and began mixing up the batter. The consistency I noticed was way off as I began to fry a piece of red pepper and none of the tempura batter was sticking. I thickened that bad boy up with my 

Mom's words in my head whenever we would make crepes at home: 

"Get out all the lumps, or else it will taste like crap. No one wants to eat a mouthful of flour!" 

 

So I did just that, mixed in the tempura flour with the water, vigorously getting out all the lumps, and found a consistency that would stick onto the vegetables. Before I knew it, things were frying! I tasted my first piece and let out a little squeal! IT WAS JUST LIKE AT A SUSHI RESTAURANT! I HAD DONE IT! So I chopped up more veg, got out my salmon and shrimp, and had a tempura making party!

 Things were frying up perfectly and I felt so incredibly Japanese! I also felt a little like an iron chef being able to add this to my culinary resume, because being able to cook

TEMPURA is kind of a big deal!

After everything had been cooked I looked at my plate of tempura fried food. I sat down and ate my happy little proud heart out. My culinary conquest to conquer tempura was now complete.
Iron Chef Nikki has been born.