Tempura [Most Frequently Cooked Japanese Food]

I was once at a high-end Tempura restaurant in Kyoto, they have both tatami-mat rooms and tempura-bar ozashiki. We had our dinner at tempura bar which was located in a traditional-style room with great garden view. Comfortable, cosy and we were able to chat with the chef as we eat.

I was impressed with some of the tempura items they served, such as sweet pea tempura. It was just ordinary sweet peas at a glance until after I took a bite and revealed the filling inside. They actually removed the peas and stuffed pod with mashed peas, a lot of time and efforts put into a small sweet pea.

Well, my tempura (天ぷら, tenpura) has long way to go before I can compete with the mentioned restaurant but good enough to serve to my loved ones. In fact, it is one of the most frequently "ordered" Japanese food at My Kitchen.

Recipe adapted from Practical Japanese Cooking cookbook by Shizuo Tsuji and Koichiro Hata.

Ingredients:
200 g cake flour
400 ml ice water
1 small egg (original recipe called for 2 egg yolks)
Pinch of dashi powder (optional)

Methods:

1. Combine egg and ice water, pour into flour and mix roughly.
2. Coat ingredients with flour then dip into batter
3. Deep-fry.