In the early 17th century, around the Tokyo Bay area, tempura ingredients and preparation underwent a remarkable change as the Yatai (food cart) culture gained popularity. In those days, tempura was deep-fried in lard with a batter of flour, water, eggs, and salt unlike today, it was eaten without dipping sauce. Portuguese and Spanish, both Romance languages, inherited Têmpora and Témpora from the Latin tempora. It was a way to fulfill the fasting and abstinence rules for Catholics surrounding the quarterly ember days (Spanish: Témporas). However, toward the end of the 16th century, the technique of fritter-cooking with a batter of flour and eggs was acquired in Nagasaki from Portuguese missionaries. History Peixinhos da horta ('Little fishes from the garden'), the Portuguese ancestor of Japanese tempura Tempura yatai (stall) of Edo period Black bass ten- don in Lake Ashi, Japan Tenya Origins Įarlier Japanese deep-fried food was either simply fried without breading or batter or fried with rice flour. Tempura is also served as a donburi dish where tempura shrimp and vegetables are served over steamed rice in a bowl ( tendon) and on top of udon soup ( tempura udon). When served over soba (buckwheat noodles), it is called tempura soba or tensoba. Tempura is also used in combination with other foods. Kakiage is a type of tempura made with mixed vegetable strips, such as onion, carrot, and burdock, and sometimes including shrimp or squid, which are deep fried as small round fritters. Mixtures of powdered green tea and salt or yuzu and salt are also used. Alternatively, skim tempura may be sprinkled with sea salt before eating. The most common sauce is tentsuyu sauce (roughly three parts dashi, one part mirin, and one part shōyu). In Japan, it is often found in bowls of soba or udon soup in the form of shrimp, shiso leaf, or fritter. Tempura is commonly served with grated daikon and eaten hot immediately after frying. Serving and presentation Tentsuyu is the most common sauce consumed with tempura.Ĭooked pieces of tempura are either eaten with dipping sauce, salted without sauce, or used to assemble other dishes. Types of seafood used in tempura include: The most popular seafood tempura is probably ebi (shrimp) tempura. Seafood Scallop tempura with sea urchin roe Various seafood and vegetables are commonly used as the ingredients in traditional tempura. Tenkasu are often reserved as ingredients in other dishes or as a topping. A small mesh scoop ( Ami jakushi) is used for this purpose. The bits of batter (known as tenkasu) are scooped out between batches of tempura so they do not burn and leave a bad flavor in the oil. The finished fry is pale whiteish, thin and fluffy, yet crunchy. Many specialty shops still use sesame oil or tea seed oil, and it is thought certain compounds in these oils help to produce light, crispier batter. Vegetable oil or canola oil are most common however, tempura was traditionally cooked using sesame oil. Thin slices or strips of vegetables or seafood are dipped in the batter, then briefly deep-fried in hot oil. No seasonings or salt is added to the batter, or the ingredients, except for some recipes recommending rinsing seafood in salt water before preparation. Deep-fried foods which are coated with breadcrumbs are called furai, Japanese-invented Western-style deep fried foods, such as tonkatsu or ebi furai (fried prawn). Tempura does not use breadcrumbs ( panko) in the coating. This is generally light (low-gluten) flour and occasionally contains leaveners such as baking powder. Specially formulated tempura flour is available in supermarkets. Overmixing the batter will activate wheat gluten, which causes the flour mixture to become soft and dough-like when fried. The batter is often kept cold by adding ice or placing the bowl inside a larger bowl with ice. Tempura batter is traditionally mixed in small batches using chopsticks for only a few seconds, leaving lumps in the mixture that, along with the cold batter temperature, result in the unique fluffy and crisp tempura structure when cooked. Using sparkling water in the place of plain water makes a similar effect. Sometimes baking soda or baking powder is added to make the fritter light.

Preparation Batter Ī light batter is made of iced water, eggs, and soft wheat flour (cake, pastry or all-purpose flour ). The word tempura comes from the Ember Days ( quatuor tempora in Latin), the quarterly periods of fasting in Western Christian churches, where believers go meatless.

The dish usually consists of seafood, meat and vegetables that have been battered and deep fried. Tempura ( 天ぷら or 天麩羅, tenpura, ) is a typical Japanese dish that was originally introduced to Japan by the Portuguese in Nagasaki through fritter-cooking techniques during the 16th century.

Chinese fried ice cream