as many as I want … Tempura Shrimp for National Tempura Day

I took a little break from ye ‘ol blog last week, mainly to recover from holiday cookie overload. Between the 12 Days of Cookies here, my own personal cookie baking and holiday cooking/entertaining in general, I needed a bit of time away from the kitchen. But then I read something quite wonderful over the weekend. Were you aware that yesterday was National Tempura Day? Yeah, so apparently, that’s a thing. In terms of strange, made up food holidays, I am on board with this one. I often think that if there is a professional (or even amateur) contest for eating shrimp tempura, I should enter. And win. I can really down some shrimp tempura. Maybe I can be the Joey Chestnut of Japanese fried shrimp. (leave it to YouTube to find one.) But what’s with the 2 shrimp per order thing? Grrrrrrrr. Japanese restaurants should take a cue from fried fish shacks and sell them by the pound. That would be a dream. A slightly greasy paper bag of hot, crispy tempura shrimp? Yes please. (Shrimp Tempura? Tempura Shrimp? Beats me.)

Maybe I just need to make my own. Could I? Although I generally avoid frying things at home – it’s a pain, its messy, the smell lingers forever and the leftover oil will sit on my counter for months until I finally throw it away – it was National Tempura Day. No better time to to try this I suppose. New Years resolutions be damned, it was National Tempura Day! I was going to fry – and eat – as many tempura shrimp as I wanted.

Good tempura differs from other types of fried batters – it should be pale blond with an extraordinarily lacy, light, and crisp coating. While I’ve batter fried plenty, I’ve never done tempura so I turned to a trusty source: Kenji Lopez-Alt on Serious Eats. If anyone was going to point me in the right direction, it was this guy. Tempura batter is interesting and temperamental. His recipe is especially interesting: equal parts cornstarch to flour, an egg and cold club soda with the additional of vodka. Huh. Having made his vodka pie dough regularly, I knew why but it was interesting to see here all the same.

Here’s what Kenji says regarding vodka in batters and doughs: “Vodka helps fried foods become crispy in a couple of different ways. The first has to do with its volatility, particularly when compared to water or other liquids commonly used to make batters or marinades. During deep-frying, liquid in the batter vaporizes, which both dehydrates the batter and creates bubbles that give it more surface area. The dehydrated batter then begins browning, which ultimately leads to that essential crisp crust. Because vodka is more volatile than water, it evaporates more quickly, which dries out the batter faster and more violently. That creates larger bubbles and even more surface area, in turn resulting in a much crispier crust. It also actively inhibits the production of gluten, the network of proteins that forms when flour and water combine. By limiting gluten development, vodka yields a batter that can be mixed, and subsequently used, for far longer than a traditional batter, which will become doughier and heavier the longer it sits. It also allows you to thin out the batter, for a shatteringly delicate crust that remains crisp for much longer than a typical flour-and-water mixture.”

So ok then, a bit of vodka it is. But here’s what I learned in this process: the water matters. I didn’t have club soda hanging around so my first attempt used a bottle of sparking water from Trader Joe’s, leftover from a New Year’s Eve dinner party. Same thing, right? NO. Sparkling water is not club soda and its definitely not bubbly enough; the batter was heavy and slipped right off the green beans in one piece, like an old sleeping bag. Damn. So I rummaged around in my pantry for the bubbliest of all bubbly water: Topo Chico. A decent substitute for club soda right? I poured it gently over ice and waited for it to chill. Big difference. HUGE. The Topo batter was light and airy and feathery and crispy and stayed on the green bean nice and tight, just like it’s supposed to be. Lesson learned. Just buy the damn club soda though I would argue Topo Chico works great too.

Preparing the shrimp is a little fussy as you really should devein first, then flatten and stick them with a wooden skewer to keep them nice and long during frying. I never much though about how tempura shrimp are long and straight when a shrimp has a tendency to curl up tight upon hitting heat. Well, now I know and it’s a pain in the butt. I suppose you could skip this part but then you’d just have fried shrimp, wouldn’t you?

Once battered they only take a minute or so to fry into light, golden crispy perfection. Have your sauce ready to go and eat them hot from the pan immediately. These do not wait for anyone. Seriously, they do not wait. The batter may be different then what you’ve had at your local sushi place as it seems a lot use panko breadcrumbs to avoid the hassle of making the temperamental batter over and over and over. Make this right and it’s light and crispy and really quite lovely.

But let’s have some real talk, shall we? Was this as good as what I can get at a good Japanese restaurant? Hmmm, pains me to say but probably not. I need more practice. It takes years to master the art of tempura, and an art it is. There are a lot of mitigating factors to consider and while Kenji’s batter helps with many of those, to get it perfect is not an easy thing. But it was fun, it was pretty delicious and I ate as many as I wanted. That was great.

STRESS THERAPY BAKING FACTOR: HEAVENLY. Strangely, my anxiety around frying evaporated away, much like the vodka in the batter. Maybe it was my excitement to eat as many shrimp as I wanted but I was all on board for this one. Sure it was a pain, sure it was messy and yes, that fried oil smell stuck around forever. I wasn’t too thrilled with that part but I fried and I dipped and I ate until I could eat no more. It was marvelous. Happy New Year to ME.

Ten years ago: Sunchoke Soup
Nine years ago: Classic Vanilla Bean Cheesecake, Bacon Wrapped Dates, Cheddar Monkey Bread
Eight years ago: Caramelized Roasted Pears
Seven years ago: Steel Cut Oats on the Go, Strecca di Nonna (Stick Bread)
Six years ago: Hoppin’ John, Sunday Gravy
Five years ago: From Scratch Rum Cake
Four years ago: Rumaki(chicken livers and water chestnuts wrapped in bacon)
Three years ago: Savory Salami and Cheese Bread, Post Holiday Granola
Two years ago: Ideas for Using Post Holiday Leftovers, Chicken Wing Friday – Kimchi Buffalo Wings
Last year: Pretty Good Simple Chocolate Cake

TEMPURA SHRIMP & VEGETABLES – from this recipe
Serves 4
If you’d like to fry some vegetables instead or in addition to the shrimp, there’s a handy prep chart here. While traditionally served with just fresh lemon wedges, I also like a soy-ginger type dipping sauce and this is a good one. Also the second most important thing to making the batter correctly is to watch the temperature during frying – keep it steady at 375°F.

2 quarts peanut oil or vegetable shortening
½ cup cornstarch
½ cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 large egg
¼ cup 80-proof vodka
½ cup ice-cold club soda
1 pound shrimp (or 4 cups thinly sliced vegetables – see prep chart noted above)
Lemon wedges, for serving

1. Prep the shrimp: Peel, leaving the final tail section intact and remove the legs.
2. Flatten each shrimp, and insert a wooden skewer lengthwise to keep it straight while it fries; remove the skewers after cooking.
3. Preheat the oil: Heat the oil to about 360°F in a large wok or large heavy pan over high heat, then adjust heat as necessary to maintain the temperature (as soon as the shrimp go in, the temperature will drop. Adjust your burner up and down to hold at 350°F.)
4. Line a large plate or baking sheet with a double layer of paper towels.
5. For the batter: Combine cornstarch, flour, and salt in a large bowl and stir with chopsticks to blend.
6. Combine egg and vodka in a small bowl and whisk until completely homogeneous.
7. Add cold club soda and stir with chopsticks until barely combined.
8. Immediately add the liquids to the dry ingredients and, holding bowl with one hand and chopsticks in the other, shake bowl back and forth while vigorously stirring with chopsticks until liquid and dry ingredients are just barely combined. There should still be many bubbles and pockets of dry flour.
9. Add the shrimp to batter and fold with your hand to coat.
10. To fry: Pick up the shrimp a few pieces at a time, allowing excess batter to drip off, and transfer to hot oil, getting your hand as close as possible to the surface before letting go in order to minimize splashing.
11. Increase heat to high to maintain the temperature as close to 350°F as possible and add remaining shrimp a few pieces at a time.
12. Immediately start agitating them with chopsticks or a wire mesh spider, separating shrimp, and turning in the oil.
13. Continue frying until batter is completely crisp and pale blond, about 1 minute.
14. Transfer tempura to a paper towel–lined plate or baking sheet and immediately sprinkle with salt.
15. Remove the wooden skewers and serve immediately with lemon wedges and/or a dipping sauce.