*Spiced Tempura Okra🌸
Tempura is a Japanese frying technique which requires the coating batter to be ice cold and the frying oil bubbling hot. You can use a wide range of ingredients from sea food to vegetables to make tempura. The ice cold batter comes in contact with hot oil and crisps up instantly, making the coating extremely crunchy, crisp and feather light. Traditional recipe calls for cornflour or tapioca flour,i had neither so I substituted it with homemade rice flour. I picked a few okra or bhindi from my back yard today, turned it into tempura and served with soy dipping sauce made of honey, lemon juice, soy sauce, sesame oil and chillies. This recipe is the true example of minimalistic cooking, if you nail the technique it surely will be a hit among your folks.🌸
Ingredients:
Tempura Batter:
Rice flour/ Cornflour - 6 tbsp
All purpose flour - 6 tbsp
Cold water - 150 ml
Cold Soda water - 100 ml (see note)
Salt and Pepper to taste
Other Ingredients:
Okra/ Lady Finger - 250 gms
All purpose flour - 1/2 cup
Coriander powder - 1/2 tsp
Cumin powder - 1/2 tsp
Paprika/ Red Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt and Pepper to taste
Oil for deep frying
For Soy Dip:
Soy Sauce - 3 tbsp
Honey - 3 tbsp
Lemon juice - 2 tbsp
Sesame Oil - 2 tbsp
Red chillies - 1 (sliced)
Sesame seeds - 1/2 tsp
Method:
1. Make a semi-thick tempura batter using all the ingredients mentioned and let it sit in the fridge to chill. The batter should be ice cold while frying.
2. Wash and dry the okra with a kitchen towel, trim the ends.
3. Make a dry mix in a plate using all purpose flour, coriander powder, cumin powder, paprika, salt and pepper.
4. Heat oil in a pot, oil should be smoking hot. Coat the okra in the dry mix and dust off the excess mix. Dip the coated okra in tempura batter, let the excess batter drip off and drop it in the hot oil.
5. Fry the okra in batches for 1 - 1.5 minutes per batch. Remove on a wire rack.
6. Whisk all the ingredients for soy dip and serve the spiced tempura okra with the soy dip.
NOTE:
You can substitute soda water with 1 egg.
You might need more flour to get the consistency of the batter right.
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