What is tempura batter?
Historically, tempura originated from Portugeuse missionaries in Japan around the 16th century. These missionaries introduced a dish called peixinhos da horta that they would eat during meatless “Ember days.” This dish eventually evolved into tempura, which comes from the Latin word “tempora” and refers to a time of fasting. Tempura is now a popular street food and restaurant dish in Japan and all over the world. Some of my favorite places to eat tempura are Honda Ya, Marugame Udon, and Mitsuwa when I’m on the go and need a snack.
Homemade tempura batter ingredients
A basic and authentic tempura batter is fairly simple in ingredients. It typically includes three main ingredients: eggs, all-purpose flour, and water. However, these days you can add different types of ingredients to add flavor (such as beer) or improve the texture. In addition to the traditional ingredients, I also add other items to amp up this tempura batter. The secret to crispy tempura is my addition of potato starch, carbonated water, and vodka. The potato starch helps lighten up the texture of the batter. If you only used flour, you would get thicker crusts that would get soggy fairly quicker because of the amount of gluten present. To learn more about how starches and gluten affect batters, read more here. While the carbonated water helps to give the tempura a lighter and bubblier texture, the vodka helps to take out excess moisture in the batter while it’s frying. You end up with the crispiest tempura skin.
What about premade tempura batter mixes?
Alternatively, there are also premade tempura mixes you can find at your local grocery store and online. One of the most popular tempura batter mixes that I’ve seen in American grocery stores is Kikkoman tempura batter. Some other brands you can find are Dragonfly tempura batter or Mr. Hung tempura batter.
What can you fry using tempura batter?
The great thing about tempura is that you can use this batter to fry a lot of different ingredients or really what’s ever in your fridge. Here is a list of ingredients you can use for this tempura batter:
Shrimp Fish Chicken Eggs Vegetables — lotus seeds, kabocha, onions, zucchini, eggplants, mushrooms Shiso leaves
How to make tempura batter from scratch
Making the batter itself is super easy, you actually want to make sure that you don’t work too hard and overwork the batter. Here are some tips to get the crispiest batter:
Keep all the ingredients as cold as possible, this will help prevent the overdevelopment of gluten and get crispier tempura. Only combine and mix the batter ingredients right before frying. Use chopsticks and don’t overmix the batter because this develops the gluten, which can affect the tempura texture. Dip the ingredients into a bowl of potato starch to lightly coat the ingredient and then dip into the batter. This helps the batter stick to the ingredient. Deep-fry the tempura over neutral cooking oil with 350 °F heat for about one to two minutes or until the color becomes lightly golden. (Use an instant-read thermometer to know the exact measurement!) Since there is potato starch in the batter, it will not become golden brown so pull it when the color changes to light gold. The texture should be very crunchy.
