Around the World in 80 meals - meal number 11 results - Tempura

Tempura

 For our 11th meal, we went to Japan for some tempura.  Tempura is the batter used to deep fry various meats and veggies.

Because I have only deep fried my food one other time, you could say that I am not an expert in this cooking method, and it showed.

I fried some fish, chicken, and some green beans, and nothing looked like it came from a Japanese restaurant.

I made four different variations of tempura.  The first was the recipe from the Food network (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tempura-batter-recipe/index.html) without any changes.  Without any seasonings, it was very bland.  The batter was also very very very thin.  I did add more flour to thicken it up some.

I replaced the seltzer water with ginger ale for the second batch.  This made a small change in flavor, but not much.  The batter was a little sweeter.

For the third batch, I added some old Emeril's Creole Seasoning blend that I had in the frig.  This seasoning made the meal.  The chicken, beams, and fish all tasted good.  The fourth batch also used Emeril's Creole Seasoning blend, but I didn't use as much.  This too was good, but not as good as the third batch.