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18 juin

Tempura

A few month's back... I brought home-made tempura [shrimp, crabsticks, eggplant, okra] to the office...

I bought the tempura flour and tempura sauce [pre-made and bottled] in the Japanese section of Rustans Supermarket...

Needless to say, lablab and my other officemates enjoyed it... since then, lablab was in search for the perfect Tempura and Tempura Sauce [which i just now learned that it is more properly called Tentsuyu Sauce]...

Just this morning I over heard lablab talking to her seatmates about Tempura... so I asked her how her quest for the perfect tempura recipe was going... she sent me this one:

Main Ingredients:

1/3 kilo shrimps, medium sized, 12 pcs.
3 cups cooking oil

Ingredients for the batter:

1 pc. egg
½ cup cold water
1 cup flour

Tempura Sauce:

½ cup water
1 pc. beef bouillon cube
2 tbsps. soy sauce
1 tbsp. sugar
½ tsp. msg
2 tbsps. ginger, grated and squeezed to rid of excess liquid
½ pc. radish, grated and squeezed to rid of excess liquid

Procedure:

Rinse shrimps. Drain well in Handy Strainer.

Shell shrimps, leaving tails intact. Cut off tips of tails. Push out water from tails with back of knife.

Devein shrimps. For shrimps not to curl up when fried, make a few cuts on the inside curve of the shrimps.

Starting from tail end, squeeze out excess water from shrimp body until neck end is reached.

Arrange in a Freezermate in a straight line. Freeze while preparing other ingredients.

In a deep frying pan, put oil to at least 3 inched deep. Put over medium heat.

Make batter while waiting for the oil to reach 320 degrees F: In a Thatsa Bowl Jr., beat egg. Stir in cold water. Add flour and mix lightly. In a Thatsa Bowl, put ice and water. Nest Thatsa Bowl Jr. in a Thatsa Bowl to cool batter.

Hold shrimp by the tail. Dip in batter one at a time.

Put 4 to 6 shrimps in the hot oil to cook.

Using chopsticks, remove shrimp from oil when crisp. Shake off excess oil.

Drain on paper towels. Do not stack one on top of another as this will make the earlier batches of fried tempura soggy.

Prepare Tempura Sauce: Mix all ingredients except radish and ginger. Bring to a boil. Put in a bowl. Serve hot with radish and ginger on the side.

Serve Shrimp Tempura with Tempura Sauce immediately.

Variations:

Replace shrimps with assorted vegetables, julienne cut.

Replace shrimps with fish strips or squid slices.

Anyways, lablab has been having troubles with the taste of her tempura sauce [Tentsuyu Sauce]... so with a little research... I now know what ingredient her recipe lacks...

Apparently, Tentsuyu Sauce is made roughly of three parts dashi1, one part mirin2, and one part shoyu3.

That’s the reason why lablab has been very unsuccessful in making her home made tempura sauce… out of the many ways to make Dashi… only shiitake is locally available… but those mushrooms are overly expensive.

Another problem is Mirin [Japanese Sweet Rice Wine]… good luck in finding them locally…

I also found another secret… tempura should be deep-fried in sesame oil… which I think is more expensive than olive oil.

Anyways… we can always dilute the sesame oil in normal cooking oil if it’s too expensive… as for the sauce, there’s no choice but to buy those pre-made bottled ones…

There… hmmm learned a lot of things tempura today… It's making my mouth water just thinking of tempura... maybe I’ll grab a bag of groceries before I go home…

Itadakimasu!!!

Demitri™-san

¹Dashi is one of several simple soup stocks considered fundamental to Japanese cooking. The most common form of dashi is a simple broth or stock made by heating kombu (edible kelp) and katsuobushi (flakes of dried bonito) in water and then straining the resultant liquid. Dashi forms the base for miso soup, Japanese noodle broth, and many Japanese simmering liquids. Fresh dashi made from kelp and katsuobushi is rare today, even in Japan. Most people use granulated or liquid instant substitutes.

Other kinds of dashi stock are made by soaking kelp, shiitake, or niboshi in water for many hours or heating them in water nearly to boiling and then straining the resultant broth. Kelp stock or konbu dashi is made by soaking kelp, or sea tangle, in water. Shiitake dashi stock is made by soaking dried shiitake mushrooms in water. Niboshi dashi stock is made by soaking small dried sardines (after pinching off their heads and entrails) in water.

²Mirin (kanji: hiragana) is an essential condiment used in Japanese cuisine, with a slightly sweet taste. It is a kind of rice wine similar to sake, but with a lower alcohol content. In the Edo period, Mirin was drunk as a sweet sake.

³Shoyu is Japanese soysauce.

30 septembre

Spaghetti Bolognese

I'm Sorry there wasn't enough for everyone...

I'll make it up next time ;)

Demitri™

1Kg ground beef
500g Hotdog
2 large onion minced
2 garlic heads minced
500g fresh tomatoes
200g pack mushrooms
2 tablespoons fresh/dry basil leaves
2 tablespoons fresh/dry oregano leaves
2 tablespoons sugar
3 bay leaves
3 tablespoons of red wine
3 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper
1Kg spaghetti or other pasta if preferred

22 septembre

Bagel Deluxe

Who would think that Country Style offers an extremely delicous food?

ye gawds... I feel like i've tasted ambrosia... slightly toasted in butter... a thin layer of cream cheese... scrambled egg and ham...

to try it out... Bagel Deluxe... perfect with coffee...

Demitri™

28 janvier

Coffee Myths and Facts

Turns out... coffee has more health benefits than what we are forced to believe... I've read an almost same article about my favorite daily dose of caffeine... please read on and be enlightened... and let's toast to our health...

Demitri™

Quote

Coffee: For most, it's safe
Coffee has been blamed for everything from moral turpitude to cancer. But none of the bad raps have stuck. Coffee may even be good for you.

Despite 20 years of reassuring research, many people still avoid coffee* because they worry about its health effects. Their concerns are understandable. Older studies had linked coffee to a range of health problems, including pancreatic cancer and heart disease.