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Shrimp tempura

Shrimp Tempura

Crispy, deep-fried shrimp in a light batter. Shrimp tempura is a classic Japanese dish — fried shrimp with a crunchy coating on the outside and juicy meat inside. The secret to great results comes down to the ingredients you use and sticking to the technique.

Snezhana

Recipe author

Composition / ingredients

Servings:

Shrimp

200

Egg

Flour (tempura)

100

Water

180

Vegetable oil

100

Salt

Ground black pepper

Soy sauce

Translation table of volumetric measures

Nutrients and energy value of the composition of the recipe

By weight of the composition:

Proteins 26 % 10 g

Fats 45 % 17 g

Carbohydrates 29 % 11 g

228 kcal

GI: 0 / 0 / 100

Cooking method

Cooking time: 20 min

Step 1:

Gather your ingredients. You can use any shrimp for this dish, but large ones — such as king or tiger shrimp — are the easiest to work with. Rinse the shrimp thoroughly and pat them dry.
Step 2:

If the shrimp are unpeeled, remove the head and tail and peel off the shell. This is easier to do if you let frozen shrimp sit in warm water for a bit first.
Step 3:

Make the batter, whose key ingredient is special tempura flour. These days it's easy to find in the specialty or international aisle of most grocery stores. But if you can't get it, you can make your own from a blend of wheat, rice, and corn flour, starch, and sea salt. Crack the egg into a bowl and add the water, salt, and ground black pepper to taste.
Step 4:

You can add a few drops of soy sauce for extra flavor. Whisk the ingredients together until smooth. Add the tempura flour to the liquid a little at a time, whisking constantly with your other hand so no lumps form. Once the batter is as thick as pourable sour cream, stop adding flour.
Step 5:

Pour the vegetable oil into a heavy-bottomed pan with high sides and heat it until very hot. Dip the shrimp into the batter. If they're large, you can thread them onto wooden skewers and dip them one at a time. Mine were small, so I dipped them in batches and dropped them into the hot oil with a fork.
Step 6:

Leave the shrimp in the oil for just a few minutes, until the coating turns golden — the key is not to overcook them. Lift them out with a slotted spoon and set them on paper towels first, so the excess oil is absorbed. Transfer the shrimp to a serving dish and serve with a dipping sauce if you like. Enjoy!

As the story goes, shrimp tempura didn't actually originate in Japan but in Portugal. The word "tempura" is thought to come from the Latin for "times" (as in Ember Days), because the dish was made during periods of fasting, when meat, poultry, and dairy were off the table but seafood and vegetables were allowed.