Quick Easy Tempura Batter
Ingredients
- 1 cup All-Purpose Flour
- 1 large Egg
- 1 cup Water
- Ice Cubes for chilling the water
Instructions
- Gather the ingredients.
- In a small bowl, sift the flour once or twice to remove any clumps and to make it light and soft. Set aside.
- In a separate medium bowl, gently beat egg until the yolk and egg whites are just barely incorporated.
- Combine the water and ice cubes in a cup. Using a strainer, strain the water (you should have 1 cup of ice-cold water) and add it to the bowl with the beaten egg. Make sure you do not actually add ice cubes to the tempura batter.
- Add the sifted flour into the bowl with the egg and water mixture and lightly combine the flour using chopsticks. Be careful not to overmix the batter; it should be a little lumpy.
Notes
How to Use
When ready to use your tempura batter, there are a few things to keep in mind:
Tips
- First, lightly coat the seafood or vegetable in either cake flour, Wondra flour, or all-purpose flour before dipping them into the tempura batter. This allows the batter to adhere better.
- Once coated, dip your items into the batter gently. Too much batter runs the risk of a crispy exterior and mushy interior.
- When ready to fry, make sure that your frying oil is between 340 F and 360 F. Any higher and it will be too crispy. Any lower and the tempura will absorb too much oil and won't get crispy enough.
- Once fried, serve immediately with a dipping sauce and dig in. Tempura can get mushy if it sits too long.
- If for some reason the batter won't be used right away, place it in the refrigerator temporarily (for a few short minutes) to keep it ice cold until you're ready to deep-fry your tempura. Do not store in the fridge for an extended period of time.
- Prepare all of the ingredients you plan to deep-fry prior to mixing the batter ingredients.
- Always sift the flour. This makes the flour lighter and easier to incorporate into the batter when it's mixed.
- For crisp tempura, use ice water instead of room-temperature or tap water.
- Instead of a whisk, use chopsticks to mix the tempura batter ingredients. This minimizes the amount of air in the batter and lessens the risk of overmixing.
- Heat the oil for deep-frying before the tempura batter is prepared to ensure the batter is at its coldest when it hits the oil and that the oil is ready for frying.
- While frying, do not place the bowl of batter on the hot stove or it will get too hot.
- Don't prepare the tempura batter ahead of time, as it will not yield the best results.