Kakiage

Kakiage is a sort of tempura (don't pronounce it ten-pyu-ra, that sounds silly). Instead of frying a piece of shrimp or vegetables of the season one by one, chop up everything and mix all the stuff together. A bit like fish cake in this sense, except that you do not mash them up. This is a nice way to deal with not-so-great shrimps or squids from your local supermarket since it will blend in with the other bits.

The ingredients we tried the other day:(Serves 3-4)

1. Shrimps (100g)
2. Squid legs (they usually have 10 legs)
3. mitsuba (or parsley): gives colour and freshness.
4. Onion (half): gives body and sweetness.
5. 1 carrot:gives colour and sweetness










----tenpura mix
6. flour (100ml)
7. potato starch (1 table spoon)
8. ice cold water (100ml)
9. 1 egg

Chop ingredients 1-3, Finely chop the onion and carrots. Put the flour and potato starch into the mixture of cold water and egg, mix them roughly using a pair of chopsticks or a fork. add the chopped up ingredients and mix it again.

Heat the frying oil (vegetable oil, not olive or sesame) in the pan to about 180C. Scoop a table spoon of the mix and gently slide it in to the heated oil. Do not touch it before it has firmly stuck together. Turn it once to cook both sides.



Serve it with a good rock salt or tempura dip (a mix of sake (50cc), mirin (50cc), soy sauce (50cc) water (200cc) with a dried konbu, heated in a pan and cooled down)



The tenpura mix should work for regular tenpura as well. We tried sweet potatoes and mushrooms and they came out great. Fish might be tricky for the kakiage since it tends to crumble while mixing.