Fantastic Crispy Tempura Batter

Kittencalskitchen's Note:

Whenever I have tempura at a restaurant it is always so light and crispy, the boxed store-bought stuff is okay providing you rush to the table within minutes to eat it or it gets soggy and soft, I have tryed many tempura recipes over my 35 years of cooking I have to say this one is the best, it produces a very light crispy coating that holds up well --- I have used this to make tempura veggies and froze them after deep-frying in this batter, and just reheated them in a small amount of oil, also with bite-size meaty pieces of fish and with about 15 large peeled shrimp cooked about 3 minutes --- remember the tempura must sit out at room temperature for 10 minutes before using, If you want to make a double recipe of tempura, then make two exact recipes using two separate bowls, do NOT double the recipe and make it all in one bowl it will not work --- use only rice flour for this anything else will not work the same and use only a light-coloured beer.

• Total Time: 23 mins
• Prep Time: 20 mins
• Cook Time: 3 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

• 3/4 cup beer (do not use a dark beer!)
• 3/4 cup rice flour
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4-1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder (optional or to taste)
• vegetable oil (for deep frying)
• seasoning salt

Directions:

1. In a bowl whisk beer with the rice flour until very smooth.
2. Add in salt and garlic powder and cayenne (if using).
3. Let sit out at room temperature for 10 minutes.
4. Heat oil to 375 degrees.
5. Dredge the fish or veggies into the batter coating completely with batter, letting any excess drip off.
6. Deep-fry turning once until golden (about 3 minutes).
7. Transfer to a piece of brown paper (a brown paper bag will do for this!).
8. Season with seasoning salt.

Reviews

[messystation]

I have made this 3 times now. Once I used it for tempura shrimp sushi, once for onion straws, and once for plain tempura shrimp. The crispiness holds up, even in sushi, even after said sushi has been sitting in the fridge overnight. To make this gluten free, just sub club soda for the beer and add a little sugar. I also like to add some wasabi powder.

[jestep]

Great batter, texture, flavor. To the previous posted that uses Extra Virgin Olive Oil to fry foods in, this is a good way to kill yourself. Use grapeseed or canola oil if you don't want to use veg oil. When you heat up an oil with a low smoking point like olive oil it can catch fire, or explode if you put too much moisture in it. The heat also breaks down the oil and creates free radicals and carcinogens. It is far more unhealthy and very dangerous to fry in olive oil despite how healthy olive oil is normally.

[Tina Poe]

Great recipe. If you dredge the fish in a light coating of seasoned rice flour before putting in the batter, the batter will adhere much better and will stick to the fish better.