Recipe: Ebi Fry Bento

Recipe: Ebi Fry Bento – A popular dish of shrimp that is breaded and deep-fried and served with tonkatsu sauce or tartar sauce, Ebi Fry is a classic “yoshoku”, or Western dish that is often found on the menu of Japanese restaurants and cafes. It is also a popular item to be included together with bento lunch.

Ebi Fry is different from another common Japanese dish, the shrimp tempura. Ebi Fry is coated in flour, egg wash, and then coated with coarse panko bread crumbs to create a thick breaded exterior. On the other hand, shrimp tempura is dipped in flour, starch and egg, giving it a light crunchy exterior.

Today, we will be making Ebi Fry Bento, because everything’s better when eaten with rice, what more Japanese rice! Just follow the simple steps below.

Ingredients (4 servings):

• • Cooked Japanese short grain rice
  • Lettuce (for garnish)
  • Tomato
  • Broccoli
  • Furikake (rice seasoning)

• TAMAGOYAKI

  • 4 eggs
  • 1 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp mirin
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • pinch of salt
  • cooking oil as needed

• EBI FRY

  • 16 large prawns
  • kosher salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • ½ cup all-purpose flour
  • 3 large eggs
  • 2 cups panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
  • Vegetable oil

Preparation Method:

#EBI FRY

1. Peel Prawns and season with salt and pepper.
2. Beat eggs into a bowl.
3. Coat the prawns with flour, and then beaten egg. Then you go back to flour, then egg again, and finally panko.
4. Heat oil on high heat until it’s hot.
5. Gently put 2-3 prawns in oil and deep fry them until golden brown. Transfer Ebi Fry onto a wire rack to remove excess oil.
6. Between batches, make sure to scoop up the bread crumbs to keep the oil clean and avoid the oil turning dark.

#TAMAGOYAKI

1. First, beat your eggs in a bowl using a fork.
2. Add one tablespoon each of soy sauce, mirin and sugar and a little salt to your mix.
3. Put a small amount of cooking oil in your pan and bring it up to medium heat. Keep some kitchen roll handy to help keep the pan oiled during cooking.
4. Add a small amount of your egg mix into the heated pan. Once the egg has cooked slightly so that the top is still slightly uncooked, push it over to the side of your pan.
5. Add a little more oil to the pan using the kitchen roll and add another small amount of the egg mix to your pan. Again, wait for this to cook a little, but before it sets on top. You can then begin to roll the first bit of egg over the mix you just put in the pan until you have a small roll of egg.
6. Continue adding a small amount of egg while oiling the pan each time in between. As you add more egg and roll it up each time, your egg roll will start getting larger and easier to add new layers. Keep adding the egg in new layers until you have used it all up.
7. Your tamagoyaki is now finished so remove from the pan and wait to cool before slicing it up into thin pieces with a sharp knife.

#BENTO

8. Fill up half of bento box with Japanese rice. Let it cool so that hot/warm rice will not warm up other cool food.
9. Wash lettuce and tomatoes and pat dry. Place nicely in the bento box.
10. Pack cooled Ebi Fry on top of lettuce.
11. Put Tamagoyaki in the bento box.
12. Sprinkle furikake on top of rice.

There you have it, homemade Recipe: Ebi Fry Bento that you can share with your loved ones! If you’re a bento lover, you can also try making the Kakuni Bento, and Chicken Shiogayaki Bento. However, if you think it is a hassle to prepare your own, you can always order well-prepped bento via foodpanda and have it delivered right to your doorstep.