Szechuan Tempura Fried Vegetables
Prep time - 10 minutes
Cooking time - 15 - 20 minutes
Serves 2 - 4 people as an entrée or snack
This is honestly the most crisp, light and delicious batter I have ever had. Despite containing ‘glutinous’ rice flour - this recipe is in fact gluten free. Glutinous rice flour, or glutinous rice has been named this way because of the sticky properties that the rice contains in the grain. Sometimes also referred to as sticky rice.
Have your vegetables sliced and ready. Prepare a frying station consisting of 3 bowls.
1 bowl to contain the batter, the second bowl with the dust for pre-battering and the third bowl with absorbent paper for draining and seasoning the fried vegetables.
Once the batter is mixed, it should coat your finger tip ever so lightly. It may seem almost too thin, but don’t worry, once you have dusted the vegetables it will stick and hold perfectly.
Pre-heat the oil to 180 degrees. If you have a thermometer, perfect, otherwise you can test the oil by dropping a few drops of the batter in. If the batter sizzles and floats on the surface you are ready. Try to keep the oil at this temperature the whole time, you may even slightly turn up the heat. I tend to work with a medium high flame.
Using a pair of tongs, dust 1 piece of vegetable at a time, both sides, then dunk and swirl in the batter to coat it. Hold the vegetable above the batter for 3-4 seconds allowing the excess batter to drop off, then let it go straight into the hot oil. Repeat this process for each piece of vegetable until you have 1 even layer of vegetables frying. Its important not to overcrowd the oil.
Depending on thickness, the vegetables will take 2-3 minutes to fry.
Once cooked, using your tongs, remove from the oil and place in the bowl with absorbent paper.
Season immediately with a generous coating of the szechuan pepper mix.
Continue this process for all of your vegetables. Serve in a large bowl with plenty of dips and sauces, fresh lemon and or lime juice and of course more szechuan pepper as desired.
Ingredients -
1/2 an eggplant, sliced into 1/2 cm discs
1/2 a zucchini, sliced into 1/2 cm discs
1 capsicum, seeds removed, cut into rectangles
8 swiss brown mushrooms, whole
2L canola oil, for deep frying
lemon and or lime, for squeezing as garnish
desired dips or accompaniments - soy mirin, sweet chilli and or sweet & sour dressings are delicious
For the batter -
100g tapioca flour
100g rice flour
100g glutinous rice flour
400g soda water
Mix all together with a whisk in an appropriate sized bowl.
These can usually all be found at your local asian grocer and are inexpensive.
For the dust (pre-batter) -
100g tapioca flour
Mix together in a medium sized bowl.
