Niki Nakayama’s Rockfish and Vegetable Tempura Recipe
Written by MasterClass
Last updated: Apr 16, 2022 • 3 min read
Tempura frying can be challenging, but as Japanese-American Chef Niki Nakayama says, once you understand the concept, it becomes easier. Learn how to make crispy tempura with her recipe.
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What Is Tempura?
Tempura is a Japanese dish consisting of vegetables or seafood lightly battered and deep fried until crispy. The technique was likely brought to Japan in the sixteenth century by the Portuguese and has since become a staple of Japanese cuisine.
At Japanese restaurants, you’ll see a tempura chef use multiple pots because, as Chef Niki Nakayama explains, “certain [ingredients] require different temperatures to cook, and timing as well.”
Tempura is typically served with tentsuyu, a dipping sauce made from soy sauce, mirin (cooking wine), and dashi (fish broth), plus shredded daikon radish and ginger for stirring into the sauce.
Chef Niki Nakayama’s Tips for Tempura Frying
Tempura frying is a skill. Here are Chef Niki’s tips to mastering tempura frying:
- Use a premixed flour. While you can make your own tempura flour, you can also find premixed tempura flour at Japanese markets. “It has the baking soda all pre-sifted in,” Chef Niki. “It has dried egg white powder as well. And that really helps to make a batter that’s crispy and less oily.”
- Add sesame oil. To your tempura oil base (you can use rice bran oil, vegetable oil, soy oil, cottonseed oil), add sesame oil. “Sometimes if you’ve had tempura that has a little aroma of sesame flavor, that’s the little addition of sesame oil into the oil,” she says.
- Keep your batter cold. Add a bowl of ice underneath your batter so that it stays cold. “[One] of the things about tempura batter is … it really needs to be cold in order to produce a really nice product,” Chef Niki says.
- Maintain the oil’s temperature. If the temperature of the oil drops, it can affect the final product, making it less crispy. “[Pull] little bits of batter that [are remaining out] of the oil because … the little tempura batter bits actually causes the oil temperature to go down a little bit,” she says.
Niki Nakayama’s Rockfish and Vegetable Tempura Recipe
makes
prep time
15 mintotal time
35 mincook time
20 minIngredients
For the tempura batter
For the rockfish vegetable tempura
For the tempura dipping sauce and serving
- 1
Fill a wide, deep pot or wok with enough oil so that it comes nearly halfway up the sides (at least 3–4 inches). Heat the oil over medium-high heat until it’s 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- 2
To make the tempura batter, prepare an ice bath for your tempura batter by filling a large bowl with ice. Set another large metal or glass bowl on top of the ice bath, and sift in the flour, baking soda, and potato starch.
- 3
In a small bowl, mix the egg and 1 cup ice water together until well combined. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture, and stir with chopsticks or a small whisk, leaving small lumps. This should take less than a minute; the batter should coat the spoon in a thin layer but run off easily. Keep the batter on ice.
- 4
Prepare the rockfish and vegetables. Put potato starch in an even layer at the bottom of a shallow baking dish, enough to cover the bottom so that you can lightly toss your tempura ingredients in it. When you’re ready to batter and fry, check the consistency of your tempura batter. If it has thickened, you can add a little cold water. You can test the oil by dropping in a little of the batter: It should float to the surface and will start to bubble.
- 5
Lightly dust your ingredients with the potato starch; this helps remove any excess moisture. Dip each in the batter to lightly coat. Fry in batches by ingredient until lightly golden, turning the ingredients with a skimmer. For vegetables, 1–2 minutes (for shiso leaves, 15 seconds). For root vegetables, 3–4 minutes. For the rockfish, 1–2 minutes. Transfer to a rack or paper towel to remove excess oil.
- 6
Make the tempura dipping sauce. Mix the dashi, mirin, and soy sauce in a 4:1:1 ratio in a small saucepan set over medium heat. Heat until the sauce comes to a light simmer, about 5 minutes.
- 7
Meanwhile, place a small mound of freshly grated daikon into small bowls and top with freshly grated ginger. When the dipping sauce is hot, transfer to separate dipping bowls. Niki serves her tempura on paper towels alongside small bowls of salt, lemon wedges, tempura dipping sauce, and grated daikon. Your guests can add the grated daikon and ginger as desired to the dipping sauce at the table.
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