Dish of the Day: Tempura Moriawase

What Is Tempura Moriawase?

Tempura Moriawase is a Japanese dish made up pieces of lightly battered and deep-fried assortment of seafood and vegetables. It was introduced to Japan during the 16^th century by the Portuguese in Nagasaki. It is staple dish in Japanese restaurants, serving as a main dish, side dish or as a topping for donburi or udon noodle dishes. There is a variety of seafood and vegetables used in the traditional recipe.

Examples of seafood include:

• Shrimp
• Prawn
• Crab
• Scallop
• Fish

The all-vegetables assortments, yasai tempura, are served as a vegetarian dish. Examples of vegetables include:

• Eggplant
• Shiitake mushroom
• Potato
• Sweet Potato
• Pumpkin

The seafood and vegetable selection is lighted coated with a batter consisting of iced water, wheat flour, baking powder, starch and oil. It is mixed in small batches with chopsticks for about few seconds. Vegetable oil is used to deep-fry the thin strips of vegetables and or seafood. They are served hot with grated daikon with tentsuyu sauce.

History Of Tempura Moriawase

Pre-16^th century, Japanese dishes are commonly deep-fried without any batter or breading. It was not until the end of the 16^th century that the Portuguese residents introduced a fritter-cooking technique which rapidly became a staple in the Japanese menu.

Tempura became popular during the Edo period due to the abundance of fresh, raw seafood in the Tokyo Bay area. During those days, people were not allowed to deep-fry food indoors due to it being thought of as a fire hazard, so it was usually prepared outdoors at food stalls.

During the post-Meiji period, tempura was considered not just as a fast-food or snack. This changed the norm of customers that would usually eat tempura in the streets standing next to a stall and bring about a new trend of customers enjoying tempura in a proper restaurant setting.

Tempura Moriawase Recipe

Ingredients:

• Vegetables of your choice (sweet potato, shiitake mushroom, carrots)
• Seafood of your choice (shrimp, prawn, squid)

(Tempura Batter)

• One cup of ice water
• 2 cups of all-purpose flour
• Egg

(Tempura sauce)

• Dashi broth
• 4 teaspoon of mirin sauce
• 4 teaspoon of soy sauce
• Grated ginger
• Grated radish

Steps:

1. For the tempura batter, first sift the flour. Beat the egg and pour the water into the bowl. Slowly add in flour and combine it all together.
2. Cut the vegetables into thin slices and cut the shrimps into diagonal shapes.
3. Heat up the vegetable oil. You can test if it is hot enough by dripping a bit of batter into the oil. If the batter becomes crispy, then it is ready for use.
4. Dip the vegetables and seafood of your choice into the batter and deep fry it in the vegetable oil. It is best to start with the vegetables first before you start with the seafood.
5. Take out the tempura and drain off the excess oil on pieces of paper towel.
6. For the tempura sauce, combine the dashi broth, mirin sauce and soy sauce together. Pour it into a sauce pan and bring it to a boil. Remove it from heat and add in the grated ginger and radish.
7. Serve it while still hot.

Note:

1. Do not overmix the batter to prevent it from becoming too dough-like when it is mixed for frying.
2. You can choose to buy specially-made tempura flour at your nearest Japanese convenience store. It is often low in gluten content and already contains baking powder in its mixture.

Where To Get Tempura Moriawase In Malaysia

Tempura Moriawase can easily be found at any Japanese restaurants in Malaysia. Some restaurants that you can visit to get a taste of it are Sushi Zanmai, Rakuzen and Sushi Tei.

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