Tempura Prawns (Nestling behind the Nicoise)

I love the lightness of Tempura batter, even though you are deep frying it you don’t feel like you’re eating something filled with calories, if you worry about that kind of thing that is, I personally am not too pressed. Eat more, run a bit further, eat less, stay lazy. I can’t bear the thought of substituting my original 79% ‘pure fat’ mayonnaise for anything skinnier for instance, and the idea of putting skimmed milk with anything whatsoever angers me, almost as much as people who claim that ‘Diet Coke’ tastes better than regular. It doesn’t, you are wrong. If you want to go healthy - drink water.

The dip for your prawns is just as important as the tempura itself, in terms of flavour probably more so. As I walked past the small Japanese section in Tesco a while back I had this in mind and did a shelf sweep of all the liquids I could see, brought them home, and stuck them in the pantry ready for such an occasion.

Ingredients: (Serves 4 as a starter)

2 handfuls of king prawns, shelled with tails still attached

Tempura Batter:

80g plain flour

80g corn flour

1 large egg, beaten

190ml ice cold soda water

1 litre of vegetable oil for deep frying

Dip:

1 tspn toasted sesame oil

2 tspns mirin

2 tspns rice vinegar

2 tspns oyster sauce

5 tspns light soy sauce

2 tspns dark soy sauce

1 tspn chilli flakes

2 tspns sweet chilli sauce

Method:

1. Cut the prawns down the spine so they fan out, when you come to cook this will increase the surface area and bulk out the prawn for that tasty dip. Ooh.

2. Sift the plain flour and corn flour together through a sieve into a bowl, make a well and pour in the egg and soda water stirring with a whisk. The mixture should be thinner than the regular beer batter due to the lightness of the corn flour and carbonated soda water.

3. Heat the vegetable oil in a thick bottomed pan until it sizzles when you drop a few bread crumbs in, dunk the prawns in the batter and carefully drop them into the oil, fry for around 3 minutes until lightly golden before removing them and draining them on kitchen towel. Fry them in batches as if you chuck too many in they tend to group together and stick.

4. For the dip simply mix all the ingredients together in a bowl and serve on the side. Tasty Morsels.