Shrimp & Vegetables Tempura | Everyday Dorie

The intent was to make the shrimp-mousse squash blossoms. It didn’t materialize because I couldn’t find squash blossoms at the last minute. It shouldn’t be hard to find squash blossoms at this time of the year. Unfortunately, a lot depends on when and where you shop, the level of supply and prior planning. Then I turned the page in Everyday Dorie. Saw a similar recipe on tempura’d vegetables, seafood or even fruit. That was the inspiration for the final dish of shrimp and vegetables tempura for posting on Cook-the-Book-Fridays.

What’s common between the two recipes are the shrimp and the tempura batter. Dorie’s tempura batter uses a mix of all-purpose flour and cornstarch (5 tablespoon each), baking powder and baking soda for leavening and the essential sparkling water to aerate the batter (1/2 cup). It raises a red flag in my head when Dorie says she’s not sure how authentic the tempura batter is.

Prior successes in making squash blossom tempura give me a sense of complacency. There are a few tricks I’ve gathered over the years. But I did not follow them when I made this batch of shrimp tempura. My bad! In the end, the tempura didn’t turn out as crispy, light and effervescent as they should be. Meanwhile, try this fun approach.

“When the (Japanese) chefs put the veg into the oil, they dripped extra batter from a height on to them. This gave the tempura a really crunchy, spiky look and feel. You don’t have to do this but it’s a good little trick.”

Jamie Oliver

As with everything fried, you have to eat the tempura as soon as it’s ready. Letting it sitting on the plate for a little too long, the hot, light and ephemeral quality of the crispy texture will vanish.

Also, next time when I make shrimp tempura with large shrimps, they should be butterflied. The uneven shape and the expanded surface space will help the batter fry more exuberantly. Next time!