Japanese Tempura Batter Mix

A friend once told me that every culture has a deep fried specialty and even the healthiest cuisine- Japanese, is no exception with their fabulous tempura battered snacks. I first tried out this mix for guests on Christmas eve but it was too hectic that night to properly photograph it for the blog. I also wanted to make it thicker so it would taste perfect. I finally tried it out again the other night.

Japanese Tempura Batter Mix

1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup corn starch
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

What else you'll need

2/3 cup ice cold water

Measure out the water into a bowl and pop it into the freezer to chill while you assemble the mix. Once this mix is ready pour in the ice water and stir until you have a thick, lumpy paste. Make sure the batter is used right away or you'll need to chill it. You can batter anything you want with it- Shrimp, fish, mussels, broccoli, zucchini, carrots... I used it to batter 1 pound of large shrimp and a few spears of broccoli for fun.

Dip each piece of food in the batter until it's thickly coated and then fry immediately, flipping once.

Lay the food on a paper towel to drain any excess oil before serving.

I served the shrimp with steamed broccoli and teriyaki rice and noodles (another new mix coming soon!). This batch was just perfect and was gobbled up accordingly.