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SCENE 1
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| The way I see it, if we're going to be victorious over tempura, the food must be prepped perfectly, the oil must be carefully chosen, and heated to an exact temperature. And the batter, well, that's going to be the tricky part. It must be light and crisp. Flavorful, but not greasy. That'll be a challenge. But first, we prep the food. |
FOOD OIL BATTER |
[at the refrigerator] Traditionally, tempura is a method for cooking vegetation and mild white seafood. My favorites: slender green beans—fresh as possible, of course—flat-leaf parsley, the wider the leaves, the better, shrimp—medium, head on, fresh, never frozen. And, we'll say, half a pound of tilapia fillet. A very, very mild fish, good for tacos and tempura. That's about it. But wait, there's more.
Root and storage
vegetables have always occupied a
place of honor at the tempura table. Renkon, or lotus root, kabocha squash, bamboo shoots, all
highly prized. But as I said, my favorite is the sweet potato, originally grown
in the region around Kagoshima, where, of course, the Jesuits first landed.
Now the Japanese developed their own version of this import,
but they're a little tough to find. So you can use anything that you would get
at the mega mart. The jewel variety, the beauregard variety, are fine. But I
prefer the garnets, because they are the perfect size and shape for this
application. [ascends the stairs]
GUEST: Thing
All right, listen up. Tempura cooks fast, so tempura cooks hot. And so our target foods require a high surface-to-mass ratio.
| No problem with the beans, which require only a cursory trimming. Or for the parsley: we'll just take some of the stem off. There, that's perfect. As for the shrimp, we need to remove the shells and the legs. So I just use scissors and snip them right down the back. But we want to leave the tails and the heads on. That's important for tempura. |
¼ Pound Green Beans, Trimmed 8 Stems Hearty Flat-Leaf Parsley ½ Pound Shrimp, Peeled & Deveined |
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Now as far as the tilapia, I just split each one of the fillets, and then cut into one-inch slices. |
½ Pound Tilapia, Cut Into 1-Inch Pieces |
As for the sweet potato, it is hard, and that means we'll need even more surface area to cook it quickly. So thin slices are in order, say an eighth of an inch max. And although I certainly could do that with a knife, you know, if I wanted, it would be hard, and it would take a long time. So we break out the mandoline. [Thing tosses AB a mandolin (lute)]
AB: Thing, do you never grow weary of that gag. Because I, for one, think it was funny about 1.2 times.
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I speak, of course, of this. Now this is a nice little, handheld, ceramic-bladed mandoline. You can use any slicer with a fixed blade like this. But if it comes with a hand guard, always make sure you utilize it. And this [sweet potato], this needs to be peeled. [throws the sweet potato up into the air, and it comes down, peeled] Thank you very much. Here we go. So once you have all of your mise en place done, go ahead and wrap and refrigerate, so that you can contemplate the batter. |
ALWAYS USE HAND GUARD! 5-6 Ounces Sweet Potato, |
Shojinage is tempura that consists exclusively of vegetables.
Boy howdy, I wish I had a nickel for every card, letter, fax, text, or e-mail I've received asking why I don't utilize one of the shiny, new countertop deep-fryers that has come on the market in recent years. Well, I'll tell you. Even if this device could reach the temperature it claims, which I have yet to witness, and even if it wasn't a tremendous pain to use, which it is, and even if it was as quick and easy to clean as it says, which it isn't, it would still be, at best, a unitasker, and you know what I think of ... Wait. You know, that's unfair. I can think of one other thing this would be good for. [camera pans to three fryers, each used as a flower pot] Now, let's consider some more traditional vessels, shall we?
| Once upon a time, tempura was fried up in heavy, iron, wok-like vessels called "agemono-nabe." Now the metal is extremely thick, so this takes a long time to heat up. And the narrow bowl shape makes it all but impossible to cook more than one piece of tempura at a time. If you ask me, this is a tool for very, very picky professionals, and that certainly rules me out. |
Agemono-Nabe |
Now we could use this nice modern tempura pot. It's made out
of thin iron, so it responds to temperature changes quickly. It's coated, so
it's non-reactive. No rusting. It's nice. A really, really fine multitasker. But
it's expensive and kind of hard to find, unlike the vessel that we so often turn
to when we deep-fry. I speak, of course, of the cast-iron Dutch oven. It is
cheap, readily available, and just heavy enough to make heat control more
manageable.
Speaking of heat management, I always fry with a fry
thermometer. And I prefer an analog model over digital, because that little
rising red column of liquid gives me a better indication of how quickly thermal
changes are taking place in this pot, and that's important.
When facing the dread tempura monster, one might be tempted to get all fancy with the fry oil. After all, modern cooks have access to dozens of different oils, including those harvested from nuts, seeds, fruits, various vegetation. Some are cold-pressed. Others are unrefined. All have specific flavor profiles and optimal temperature ranges. Although sesame oil, for instance, has often been implicated in classic tempura scenarios, plain, good old vegetable oil is my tempura fuel of choice: because it is completely devoid of flavor, it is cheap, biodegradable, and if I'm careful, I can filter it for use another day. One and a half quarts should do the job.
| [at the stovetop] The oil is in. The thermometer is attached, and the heat set to high. We're looking for 375 degrees. And keep in mind, oil heats faster than water, so don't wander away. This will happen quickly. | 1½ Quarts Vegetable Oil |
Make sure the rest of your hardware is in place. You'll need
two bowls. Ice will go in here. The batter will go in here. More on that later.
You'll need some tongs to deliver the food from the batter over to the oil. When
the food is ready, we will retrieve with a spider or some other straining device
to the draining rig. My draining rig, paper towels on top of a cooling rack, on
top of a sheet pan. I also have standing by the final resting place, some nice
simple platters. And look, plain white paper. This is very traditional for
tempura. But make sure you don't fold it straight on the angle. You want it to
be just barely off-angle. But don't get it backwards, because I'm pretty sure
that means "funeral" in Japanese. In this cuisine, everything means something.
Behold, the Japanese characters for
tempura, which translates roughly into "flour like gauze" or "batter-like
revealing dress," depending on how you read it.
Now when the Portuguese first unleashed tempura upon Nippon, the batter was simply water, wheat flour, and
egg. Now I have tried every possible combination thereof, and cannot for the
life of me come up with anything even remotely like the sample that we examined
earlier. As you can see, clunky, greasy, nasty, like really bad fish and chips.
The problem as I see it is, of course, gluten. As any good Good Eats fan knows, anytime we mix wheat flour and water
together, two molecules, glutenin and gliadin, unwind and intertwine, forming a
resilient, yet elastic matrix. Gluten is springy. Gluten is tough. And what's
worse, gluten holds on to both water and fat. This translates to gummy, greasy
tempura. Not exactly "gauzelike revealing dress" or whatever it was.
| So here's the goal. We're going to minimize the gluten. That means using ingredients that minimize water and glutenin and gliadin, and we're going to mix the batter as quickly as possible. And since gluten can form just sitting in the bowl, we're going to make the batter at the very last possible moment before frying. |
Minimize Gluten Mix Batter As Make Batter At |
| [at the pantry] First things first. Let's reconsider the flour. Now instead of ten ounces of all-purpose flour, let's try five ounces each of rice flour and unbleached cake flour. Now rice flour, easily obtained at most mega marts and certainly Asian markets, contains no gluten-forming molecules. And cake flour is finely milled, so it integrates quickly into batters. Why is unbleached important? Well, let's consider a starch granule, shall we? |
Flour |
[at the countertop, working with Styrofoam models] The process of bleaching isn't just about making the flour white, though that certainly is a factor. It's really about making the starch granules themselves more fat-friendly, a positive characteristic in cake baking. Now bleaching chemically cracks open the starch's structure. There, it is now more fat-soluble. By using an unbleached cake flour, you can avoid this over-friendliness. Now if you can't find unbleached, go ahead with regular cake flour, but know that it will make a subtle difference, and tempura success is all about subtle differences.
Tempura is sometimes served with soup and pickles in Japan.
[at the refrigerator] Keeping the tempura
batter cold will slow the absorption of liquid into the flour, and that's why
we're going to set the batter bowl down into an ice bath.
As for the batter
itself, if we switch out the water that's called for in most recipes with either
seltzer water or club soda, we'll introduce a lot of tiny bubbles into the
batter, which will lighten it. CO2 also makes the water slightly acidic, and
that is going to help to limit gluten formation. You know what else would limit gluten formation? We could
replace some of the water with another liquid altogether, one that doesn't
contain much water or oil. Hmm, what would that be?
[at the cupboard] Alcohol is a liquid, but it's not water. It
doesn't tend to soak into flour. It does not contribute to the construction of
gluten. And since it evaporates at a relatively low 78 degrees Celsius, any
batter containing it should, technically speaking, dry faster than one that is
water-based. Half a cup of 80-proof vodka—that's 40% alcohol by volume—can
stand in for half a cup of water. 100-proof vodka, even better.
[at the countertop] So in the end, we replace everything but
the egg. We do require the services of one large egg, because it will provide
fat for flavor, color, and protein for binding. Just one will do.
[at the stovetop] All right, our fry oil is at 365, quickly
closing in on 375. Time to batter up.
| We have the one egg, beaten, both flours, and the vodka, and the water. So go ahead and combine all of the wet team together, and all the dry team together, then halve them. |
1 Large Egg, Beaten 5 Ounces White Rice Flour 5 Ounces Unbleached Cake Flour 1½ Cups Seltzer Water ½ Cup Vodka |
That's right. You see, in tempura, the fresher the batter,
the better. Because as the few wheat glutens that are there sit in the water,
they are going to toughen. So I'm going to actually use up one small batch, and
then make another batch halfway through. Believe me, at some tempura joints,
they make a separate batch of batter for every single order. I have seen it.
So we take our first batch of batter over to the bowl. And keep in mind, ice is
here, because cold batter hydrates more slowly than a warm batter. So the dry
team goes in, and the wet team goes on top, and then we mix.
Oh, notice, I am using a whisk rather than the traditional
tempura mixing chopsticks, or hanabashi, which look a lot like drumsticks, if
you ask me. Mixing, about ten strokes, and then just walk away. Walk away.
Yeah, I know, lumps. But they will work themselves out. Don't worry. All right,
let's fry.
Always start with the hardest vegetable I have. In this case,
that would be the sweet potato, and six pieces will do. More than that, and
we'll crowd the pan. Make sure you've got thorough coating, but also drain
thoroughly. We don't want any big glops of batter. There we go. And make sure
you put them in one at a time so they don't touch.
Heat management here is key, so check your thermometer often.
And just ride the heat control to maintain the temperature between 375 and 400,
tops.
Now in two to three minutes, you'll see the color change on
the batter to light brown, and the sizzling will start to diminish a little.
That's when you know it's time to evacuate to the draining rig.
Now next, we'll go with the second-hardest vegetable, being the beans. Again,
about six pieces at a time, thorough coating and thorough draining. Don't skip
that part. There you go. And again, try to keep them separated as they go in so
they won't stick. Cook time, again, one to two minutes. Manage that heat
properly, 375. When you've got light brown, out that goes. And just put that
next to the sweet potatoes over on the rack. There, that looks good.
Last, but not least, we'll go with the parsley. It has the
shortest cooking time. Don't let go of it. Just kind of swirl it around in the
batter. It's going to look very kind of club-like, but don't worry. If you put
them in one piece at a time, kind of laying them out, they will spread open or
bloom. I generally let these cook only 30 to 45 seconds, because I still want to
have that bright green flavor. There, that's perfect. And evacuate.
Hard-core tempurists will tell you that you should cook each
item and then serve it individually. Me, I kind of like to have, you know, a
little medley on the plate. So I go with all three of the vegetables in small
batches, and then come back and do the seafood.
Ah, as the lucky diners receive the golden goodness you hath
wrought, they should quickly dip each piece into the soy-ginger sauce. [tries,
but there is no soy-ginger sauce] Oh, bother.
According to legend, the shogun
Tokugawa Ieyasu liked
tempura so much he ate it to death in 1616.
| Our soy-ginger tempura sauce begins with ginger, oddly enough. We'll need two tablespoons, freshly grated. And I like to use a ginger grater lined with plastic. It makes cleanup a heck of a lot easier. That looks like two tablespoons. |
2 Tbs. Fresh Ginger, Finely Grated |
| Next, we need two tablespoons, also of green onion. I like to use just the first four inches or so, chopped. Two cloves of garlic minced. |
2 Tbs. Chopped Green Onion 2 Cloves Garlic, Minced |
|
All that goes into a jar or other sealable container, along with two teaspoons of sugar, one teaspoon of sesame oil, one quarter cup of rice wine vinegar, and finally, one half cup of soy sauce. I like the low-sodium kind. Just seal that up and give it a shake to combine. It'll keep for about a week. Or, of course, you can eat it right away. |
2 tsp. Sugar 1 tsp. Sesame Oil ¼ Cup Rice Wine Vinegar ½ Cup Low-Sodium Soy Sauce |
[AB is eating] Mmm mmm. Now with the
vegetation consumed, you should slip off and cook the seafood, while your guests
stay behind and talk about what a genius you are behind your back.
So, time to mix up our second half of the batter, again, over ice to keep it
nice and cold. No more than about ten whisks with the whisk. And then the fish
comes in. We're going to start with the tilapia. Five pieces, tops. Again, after
that we'd be crowding the pan, which we don't want to do. The colder the fish
is, by the way, the better the batter will stick. So you might want to keep it
refrigerated if a lot of time is going to pass.
Into the oil. Again, 375 minimum, or things will get greasy.
Watch that heat management. After about two minutes, you should have something
that looks like this. Excellent.
Now the shrimp's a little more fragile, so take your time
with it. Again, make sure you've got the tail fin still in place, because that's
how you're going to hold it. See? Nice drain and then headfirst into the oil.
Again, two minutes, tops, and you should have something that looks a lot like
this.
Typically, the shrimp has to drain just a little longer than
the fish in order to not be greasy. There.
| Well, I hope we've inspired you to tackle tempura in your own kitchen. Just remember the three keys. Proportionally prepped ingredients, vegetable oil heated and held at 375 degrees, and a gluten-light batter, made ice-cold, at the last minute. |
Proportionally Prepped Ingredients Vegetable Oil Heated Gluten Light Batter |
TM: [appears outside the window, this time, very calm]
Oh, there, see? A once-dreaded, ten-story-tall engine of doom is reduced to a perfectly docile culinary critter.
AB: Now go get the mail, wash the car, and maybe we'll play
fetch. Good boy.
TM: [leaves]
Ha ha ha ha. See you next time on Good Eats.
Transcribed by Michael Roberts
Proofread by Michael Menninger
Last Edited on 05/01/2011
