Chicken and vegetable tempura

Now as I only found out the other day that tempura I discovered that this was not a authentic Japanese dish but was actually Portuguese.  Mind you fish and chips I thing came from Portugal and that is not an authentic British dish but we claim it as one so why worry. Mind you, I think the batter in tempura is a little more sophisticated than the stuff you get from the fish and chip shop.  

For the tempura batter you will need

100g/3½oz plain flour

1 tbsp corn flour

½ tsp salt

100-150ml/3½-5fl oz very chilled sparkling water

Vegetable oil, for frying

Now you make your batter as you need it and you have to make it with very cold water. Just from the tap is not good enough, it has to be really cold to give it the light airy texture that the batter requires. 

Start by sifting the plain flour and the corn flour in to a bole together and add the salt.  Then make a well I the middle and using a whisk add the very chilled water a little at a time.  Slowly work the dry ingredients in to the water until you have a smooth batter.  That is it now all you need is to dip something in it and fry it

Fro a dip and things to fry

1 chicken breast

1 red pepper

1 yellow pepper

1 courgette

3 tbsp dark soy sauce

3 tbsp mirin

The juice of one lime

1 tsp sugar

1 spring onion

Take the chicken and cut into 2.5cm or 1in pieces, then the red and yellow pepper remove the seeds and cut into 2.5cm 1in pieces.  That finally leaves you the courgette, once more cut into 2.5cm or 1in pieces.  Having every thing the same size will help in it all cooking at the same time. Now dip the chicken and vegetables in the batter and place them gently in to the hot fat and deep fry them until the batter is a light golden brown

To make a dipping sauce just add the dark soy sauce, mirin, lime juice and sugar in a bowl and whisk together till the sugar dissolves.  Then dice up the spring onion very fine and add that to the sauce.

Once again devastating simple and really good to eat.