Tempura Day

What the day is

Tempura Day is observed on January 7. Tempura is seafood and vegetables in a thin batter, fried so that the coating is lacy and dry rather than thick and bready.

Origin and background

It arrived in Japan with Portuguese missionaries and traders in the sixteenth century, brought as a Catholic fasting dish, and what Japanese cooks did with it afterward is the interesting part. In Edo it became street food, sold from stalls and eaten on skewers by people standing up, closer to a snack bought on the way somewhere than to the formal meal it later became. The refined version, with a specialist chef frying to order in front of a counter, developed out of that.

The technique is precise and mostly counterintuitive. The batter is flour and cold water, often with egg, and the aim throughout is to prevent gluten forming, because gluten makes the coating chewy and heavy. Three rules follow. Use ice-cold water, since cold slows gluten development. Mix with chopsticks for a few seconds only, leaving visible lumps and dry flour, because a smooth batter has been overworked. And mix it immediately before frying rather than letting it stand.

Low-protein flour helps for the same reason, and some cooks replace a portion with cornstarch or potato starch, which contribute no gluten at all.

The oil sits around 170 to 180 degrees Celsius, and the pieces come out when the bubbling quietens, which signals that the moisture inside has cooked off. A good tempura coating is pale, not golden brown.

It is served with a thin dipping broth of stock, soy and sweet rice wine with grated daikon, or simply with salt, which is what a good chef will offer for delicate vegetables.

How to take part

• Use ice water, and keep the bowl of batter sitting in ice while you work.
• Undermix deliberately. Lumps and streaks of dry flour are correct.
• Fry in small batches so the oil temperature does not crash.
• Try it with salt rather than sauce on something delicate.
• Aim for pale. Golden brown means it has been in the oil too long.