I absolutely love Japanese food and always have monthly cravings for it. But always going to the restaurants to get my fix will not be good for our pockets in the long run, so I am learning how to prepare them from my home like this Japanese tempura don which is my go-to dinner.
This Japanese tempura don meal, which serves four, would cost us about $40 to $50 at a mid-range restaurant, but we can probably save two-thirds of what we would have spent when we cook it ourselves.
For convenience, I have used pre-mix tempura flour that you can also get quickly at supermarkets. Other ingredients like furikake (Japanese rice seasoning) and bottled tempura sauce can also be bought readily.
Japanese Tempura Don (Rice)
Print RecipeIngredients
- Cooking oil for deep-frying
- 4 cups of cooked Japanese short-grained rice
- 4 large shiitake mushrooms, trimmed of caps and cut into halves
- 2-3 ladies’ finger, tail trimmed and cut slanted
- 1 small carrot, peeled and sliced
- 15-20 tiger prawns, de-shelled and de-veined
- 100 grams of tempura flour pre-mix
- 1 cup of cold water
- 8 tablespoons of tempura sauce
- 4 tablespoons of furikake seasoning
Instructions
- Place the tempura flour pre-mix in a mixing bowl. Add cold water a little at a time, and mix batter lightly till a moderately thin consistency is achieved.
- Heat enough cooking oil for deep-frying in a saucepan or wok.
- Pat dry the prawns and vegetables with a kitchen paper towel before frying.
- Test whether the oil is hot enough by dripping a drop of tempura batter. If the batter comes up to the surface immediately, the oil is ready for frying.
- Dip the vegetables, one by one, in the batter and put them gently in the hot oil. It is best to use a pair of long chopsticks or tongs to flip them to protect yourself from oil splatters. The tempura should float on the surface when frying, coated with a layer of batter. If the batter does not stick well, add more tempura flour to make the batter thicker. After the vegetables are done, continue with the prawns.
- When the coated layer turns golden brown, remove the tempura and place them on a kitchen paper towel or rack to absorb excess oil.
- To make tempura don, scoop a cup of pre-cooked Japanese steamed rice into a bowl. Drizzle two tablespoons of tempura sauce on the rice. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of furikake seasoning in the centre. Place the tempura on the bowl and serve while the tempura is hot and crispy. Repeat for another bowl.
