Shrimp Tempura

If I could eat out every day I would. I can’t think of anything better than having a spotless kitchen and zero dishes to wash all the time. I could not survive without a dishwasher. However, eating out is not sustainable for us; too many mouths to feed. So, if there are two people who will try to remake a favorite restaurant or takeout meal, it’s us. One too many orders of shrimp tempura led us to this moment.

When we were living in New York City, we had our go-to takeout places. In Astoria, our absolute favorite was Pochana Thai Kitchen. We would order from them way too often. So much, that our usuals started to get boring. One time, we ordered bang-bang shrimp and our usual orders were changed forever. Then we moved, and we could not find a place like Pochana. So we started making our own.

Shrimp Tempura

Shrimp tempura is a popular Japanese appetizer. It’s the closest thing we could get to recreating the bang-bang shrimp we had at Pochana (which is Thai). The tricky thing about this appetizer, is the batter. It’s really sensitive, so when you’re making this, make sure you’re both in a good mood.

Tempura batter is easy to make, but again, measure carefully and do it quickly. It’s best to start heating the oil once you start the batter because you’ll want to fry these shrimp immediately.

Second, buy colossal shrimp. Not large, not jumbo, colossal. Ok, you might be able to get away with jumbo because we’ve done it. Just don’t get the regular size or small shrimp. One of the reasons being you will need to make cuts to the shrimp to straighten them out and avoid curling in the hot oil. These cuts are not meant to be cutting all the way through to separate the shrimp, just to loosen the curved shape.

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Shrimp Tempura

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Appetizer – Japanese

By Lilies and Loafers – Serves: 6-8

Prep Time: 30 minutes – Cooking Time: 15 minutes – Total Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients

• Shrimp and batter
• 1lb fresh shrimp jumbo or colossal with the tails
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 egg
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup cold water
• Vegetable oil for frying
• 3 green onions, sliced, for garnish
• Spicy mayo (2:1 ratio)
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup sriracha

Instructions

Spicy Mayo

1

Before you do anything for your shrimp, make the spicy mayo. Just mix the mayo and sriracha in a small bowl, cover, and set aside.

Cleaning and Frying the shrimp

2

Clean, but keep the tails on, and devein the shrimp. I love when the seafood person does this, so if you don't buy them pre-cleaned, then you have to do it yourself. But remember, keep those tails on!

3

Using a small paring knife, make 3-4 notches in the shrimp along the underside. This will help to loosen them up and prevent curling back into shape when frying.

4

Mix cornstarch and kosher salt in a medium bowl.

5

Toss the prepared shrimp in this cornstarch mixture and set aside.

6

Heat up your oil. You'll want at least 3 inches of oil in your pot. We use our trusty Le Creuset pot. You're looking for an oil temperature 360-370 degrees F range. Just below "deep fry".

7

While the oil is heating, mix egg and ice water in a medium bowl.

8

Add in flour and gently stir.

9

Once the oil reaches 360-370 degrees F, dip a shrimp in the wet flour batter and carefully place in the extremely hot oil.

10

Work quickly and only fry 5 shrimp at a time. Try not to crowd the pot.

11

Frying will take about 2 minutes per side.

12

Remove from the oil and place on a paper towel-lined plate to absorb extra oil.

13

Repeat dipping and frying for the remaining shrimp.

14

Garnish with green onion and serve with spicy mayo!