# Tempura ｜ Our Regional Cuisines

**Cuisine Name**: Tempura

**Region**: Our Regional Cuisines

## Main Lore Areas
All areas throughout Tokyo

## Main Ingredients Used
Shrimp, sillago, squid, conger eel, big-eyed flathead, scallop, young sweetfish, etc.

## History, Origin, and Related Events
Tempura is a fried dish where flour is sprinkled onto ingredients such as seafood and vegetables, dipped in a liquid coating of egg mixed with flour, and fried in vegetable oil.In contrast to the Kyoto area where minced fish was called tempura, Edo’s tempura indicates seafood fried in batter. Edo-style tempura uses fresh seafood and sesame oil, which one eats freshly fried, one after another. Its origin is reported to be the fritters of western European cuisine which were propagated by Portugal in the mid-16th century. However, there were restrictions to cooking that used a great deal in Japan at the time, and it wasn’t until the Edo period when the production of canola oil increased that tempura was popularized. In Edo, which developed as a boom town in the Edo period, street stall businesses flourished as a way for commoners to eat out; tempura was one of these. The invention of small charcoal grills also pushed its popularity. The oil drainage was apparently poor, so it was stuck on skewers and served with grated daikon. In the latter half of the Edo period, a careful scrutiny of the frying method and ingredients led to the development of crisply fried tempura as haute cuisine. Tempura had also only been consumable as a street-stall food due to fire safety precautions, but ryotei (traditional Japanese restaurants) and tempura specialty shops spread from the Meiji period on, settling tempura’s status as haute cuisine. After that, tempura chefs who lost their jobs in the Great Kanto Earthquake migrated all over Japan, and Edo-style tempura spread throughout the country. In modern times as well, tempura, like sushi, is popularized in a wide range of forms, from household side dishes for the masses to exquisite cuisine such as high-end tempura restaurants.

## Opportunities and Times of Eating Habits
In the early part of the Showa period, when oil prices were still high, tempura was a special food for exceptional occasions. Though satisfying in both taste and appearance to fry at home, tempura became a purchasable side dish around the time when nuclear families became common. For large families, it is more economical to make tempura at home, and more delicious to consume it freshly fried. Since the ingredients can be chosen according to the season, it is said to be a highly serviceable dish.

## How to Eat
After covering the ingredients with a base flour coat (sprinkling flour on them), dip them in the liquid coating, fry them in a shallow saucepan (tempura pan) with a generous amount of hot oil (around 160-180℃). Enjoy the freshly fried tempura dipped in bonito stock sauce, with rock salt or seasoned salt sprinkled on top, with lemon or other citrus vinegar poured on, or dipped in ginger sauce, soy sauce, or grated daikon in bonito dipping sauce. You can also eat it boiled quickly in salty and sweet dipping sauce, served over rice with the broth poured on top, or as a side dish.

## Efforts for Preservation and Succession
(Outline of the traditions, the preservation society, social media use, modern approaches at commercialization)In the present day when any ingredient from flour to oil is easily obtainable, tempura is popularized as a home-cooked dish lining the dining table; it is also easy to get in the side dish corner of supermarkets, which is stocked with tempura. From 1989 on, due to the circulation of sophisticated machines including industrial fryers, restaurants could serve fresh tempura even without a skilled tempura craftsman, and restaurant chains expanded throughout the country. Additionally, there are shops in the 23 wards of Tokyo such as the Minato Ward, Chuo Ward, Bunkyo Ward, Shibuya Ward, etc. which serve Edo-style tempura focused on traditional seafoods as it was made in the past. For homemade tempura, a trick to making it crisp was to add cold water so that the wheat gluten wouldn’t separate, but nowadays tempura flour mixes, which include leavenings agent or potato starch in the mix, are sold. Cooking apparatuses such as air fryers which “fry” foods without oil are also being sold.

## Ingredients
- Japanese tiger shrimp (“komaki,” <10cm in size): 12 shrimp
- Sillago: 4 small fish
- Conger eel (sliced down the back): 4 eels
- Eggplant: 1
- Shishito peppers: 8
- 【Coating】egg yolk: 1
- 【Coating】cold water: 1.5 cups
- 【Coating】flour(all-purpose flour): 2 cups
- Frying oil (70% vegetable oil and 30% sesame oil): suitable amount
- 【Dipping sauce】dashi broth: 1 cup
- 【Dipping sauce】soy sauce: 0.5 Tbsp
- 【Dipping sauce】light soy sauce: 2.5 Tbsp
- 【Dipping sauce】mirin: 1.5 Tbsp
- 【Dipping sauce】sugar: 1.5 tsp
- Daikon: 250g
- Ginger: a little
- lemon: 1／2 of one

## Recipe
1. 1. Remove the head and vein of the shrimp, and peel off the shell while leaving the tail. Cut the shell diagonally below the tail so that it doesn’t fly off during the frying process. Holding it belly-up, bend it back in three places so that the shrimp doesn’t fold in.
2. 2. Remove the scales from the sillago, as well as the head and internal organs, and wash in water. Turning the sillago so that its head faces right, slice it down the back almost to the tail, being careful not to cut through to the belly. Next, turning it so the flesh faces down, cut out the backbone, and then comb out the abdominal bones.
3. 3. Cut the eggplant into four vertical pieces, finely score the skin with the kitchen knife, and cut the stems off the shishito peppers.
4. 4. Make the dipping sauce. Bring the dashi broth and seasoning to a boil and then let cool.
5. 5. Start to heat the frying oil to 180 C. It is 180 C when batter dropped in sinks part-way and immediately floats to the surface.
6. 6. Make the batter. Whisk the egg yolk in a bowl, add cold water and then sifted all-purpose flour. With thick chopsticks, roughly mix so that a little of the flour remains undissolved. The trick here is to start making it once the oil has begun heating, and to not over-mix.
7. 7. Pick up the shrimp by the tail, cover in ample batter, and fry.
8. 8. Coat the sillago in batter skin side up and fry.
9. 9. Fry the conger eel for a slightly extended amount of time for the coating to be crisp.
10. 10. Lower the temperature of the frying oil by a little, coat the eggplant and shishito peppers, and fry them. While the ingredients are frying, use up the remaining flour batter little by little and frequently check on the temperature of the oil, adjusting it when needed.
11. 11. Cut the conger eel with chopsticks into two even pieces, and plate with the sillago, shrimp, eggplant, and shishito peppers.
12. 12. Enjoy with dipping sauce and grated daikon, grated ginger, or lemon and salt.

## Provider Information
provider : Recipe provided by: YANAGIHARA Naoyuki (Yanagihara Cooking School)

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