Before they arrived they takkyubinned (parcel deliveried) a big box of vegies - pickled cucumber, fuki, shiitake dried and fresh, nameko mushrooms, lettuce, beans, asapargus and a gigagantic bag of shungiku a leafy herb or vegetable that might remind a person of coriander or shiso, 9though the taste isn't particularly similar) which is abundant in their vegetable patch.
Hiro loves shungiku.... but only if it's tempura. I don't usually cook tempura. I object to the amount of oil - less from health reasons than from the wilful hedonism of consuming a bottle in one go... enough to make me wonder if I was a Methodist in a past life (no disrespect to Methodists intended.) Tempura is the kind of thing best rationed to nights when it's in the supermarket 50% off pile - externally enforced discipline combined with the fact that at usual prices it's an utter rip off. Faced with rotting shungiku or using a bottle of oil to tempura-ize it, the oil won out.
I guess Hiro prefers the option of dying swiftly from a coronary rather than the prolonged lung cancer death that is awaiting...
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| My first attempt at tempura in about 10 years.... |
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| The remains of the shungiku - now all tempura--ized - mixed with onion. |
4 comments:
I'm free, I'm free, I'm free at last! :D So both sides survived relatively intact?
Your post made me chuckle. As much as I love tempura, I point-blank refuse to prepare it myself. I haven't mastered the art of splatter-free deep frying, so everything's a bespattered mess afterwards.
PS: Severe lack of eating utensils, cleaning tools and slippers in this specific abode, too ...
I survived sometimes with gritted teeth and they didn't complain about y lack of housekeeping skills or anything else that woud have irritatd me.
I found that there wasn't as much splatter s I had expected - I think I have mastered the correct temperature. I had refused out blank since the one and ony attempt was a horrid mess... I've since decided that I can't justify supermarket kakeage prices even on the 50 percent off days any more.. It.s. ridiculously cheap to make.
I think it wil be another 12 months before we get another parcel of shungiu - time for the arteries to recover.
Otsukare sama! (spellcheck wanted to change that to "otaku am"?!?)
I've made tempura exactly once. The pieces we ate as they came right out were really good but the ones that had been sitting and cooling... Not so much. I'd much rather go to a restaurant if I get a craving for tempura!
:) Having made it... due to inordinate amounts of shungiku, I have had another layer of complexity enter my tempura making. Before it was the oil, and causing a fire, and feeling greasy cooking it, and not cooking it very well anyway. But now I have also become really ketchi about tempura... one onion and the shungiku was enough for about 20 pieces of decent sized tempura, which if bought at my local summit store would sell for about 90yen / piece of vegetable slice... and then I see one onion for 40 yen and I think I'd need to be lobotomized if I bought bought it at such inflated prices...
It's just made the whole tempura thing that extra bit complex... Having said that I did buy kakiage on special at Summit today to have with somen for breakfast...
I hear you on the sogginess, I think a draining rack is a must.
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