Archive for February, 2009
I really love vegetable tempura, but it often the batter contains eggs, so I have to skip it when I’m eating at a japanese restaurant. But it’s really easy to make eggless tempura at home. You can absolutely pick up a box mix of “tempura powder” at a local asian market and skip the egg the directions call for — even the box says it’s optional. Or, you can use this recipe and make your own batter from scratch.
When you see “serve immediately” at the bottom of this recipe, I’m not kidding. You want to have absolutely everything set and everyone ready to eat when the veggies come out of the oil. As the veggies cool, the once crispy breading will begins to soften, leaving you with soggy tempura. No fun. So make sure you have your place settings, your dipping sauce, and your friends or family ready to go once the veggies hit the oil.
The oil temperature needs to be 180º C or 350º F. If you add a lot of veggies to the oil at once, not only will they stick together (not so bad), but the oil temperature will drop like a rock (very bad). Tempura fried at too low a temperature will never become crispy. It’ll cook, but it’ll be a soft, heavy coating instead of a light, crispy one.
How can you tell if your oil is hot enough? When you drop a batter coated veggie in, little bits of batter will explode off the veggie outward like tempura fireworks. These bits, called tenkasu, are a good indication that your batter is hot enough. The veggies should cook for 40 seconds to 1 minute and feel crispy when you knock them around. You don’t need them to be golden brown, so don’t wait for that.
Most vegetables will cook to the perfect tenderness in that time, including harder ones like carrots if you keep their width to 1/4″ thick. For harder vegetables like squash or sweet potatoes, you may want to briefly blanch them to get them going before frying. But broccoli, mushrooms, and green beans or snap peas don’t require any pre-cooking at all.
I recommend a traditional tentsuyu dipping sauce for these. My recipe is a little different than the ones you find online, but it’s my favorite.
Vegetable Tempura
Serves 2-4
1 Liter Vegetable Oil, for frying
1 Stalk Broccoli, florets only
2 Carrots, sliced on the bias, 1/4″ thick
1 Cup Mushrooms, your favorite
1 Cup Sugar Snap Peas or Green Beans
(Feel free to use any vegetables you like!)
Tempura Batter
1 Cup Cold Water (very cold!)
1 Cup Flour
2 Pinches Salt
1/4 tsp Baking Powder
1 Tbs Ener-g Egg Replacer Powder mixed with 3 Tbs Water
1/4 Cup Extra Water, if needed, for thinning
Tentsuyu Dipping Sauce
1/4 Cup Vegetable Stock, or Dashi if you have it
1 Tbs Sugar
1/4 Cup Low Sodium Tamari
1 Tbs Rice Vinegar
1/4 Cup Water
Heat all the sauce ingredients in a small pan until the sugar is dissolved. Set aside to cool.
Chop your vegetables, making sure harder vegetables like carrots are no more than 1/4″ thick if frying raw. Blanch vegetables like squash or sweet potatoes, if using.
Heat your oil to 350º F. A little bit of batter dropped into the oil should float to the surface immediately, and little bits of batter should explode off the veggies when frying.
Dip your vegetables in the batter.
Drop an assortment of battered vegetables into the oil, being careful not to overcrowd. You may need to turn up the temperature of the oil, because the vegetables will cool it.
Fry for 40 seconds to 1 minute until very crispy and light. Drain on a paper towel for a few seconds.
Serve immediately with dipping sauce and/or salt and pepper.
February 20th, 2009
For those of you that want to try out the candied clementines but maybe don’t want to eat them whole (yes, you can eat the peel!), I offer you this lovely clementine bundt cake. It’s a more traditional dessert for sure, but I think more broadly appealing than the candied clementines.
I blended up the candied clementines I had leftover from the last post, and it became this gorgeous, thick, marmalade-like spread. I thought it would be absolutely perfect to flavor a bundt cake with, and I was right. I think I prefer the cake to the clementines alone!
This cake was so perfectly moist and fluffy, I nearly teared up when I had the first bite. It’s a wonderful combination of sweet, citrusy, and slightly bitter (in a good way) from the peel. The clementine flavored poured fondant is really the ideal topping. But don’t get scared off at the mention of poured fondant. It’s super easy. And it’s bakery quality icing. You have to try it!
You see, I like icing glazes, but it can be tricky to get the thickness right when you’re mixing powdered sugar with liquid. Too thin and it just soaks into the cake a disappears, too thick and it doesn’t pour at all. And there’s always that vague grainy mouth feel it leaves behind, thanks to the cornstarch in the powdered sugar. I thought if I cooked it a little bit the powdered sugar would dissolve and help thicken the sugar (same idea for your basic stir-fry sauce thickened with cornstarch!). But then I also remembered poured fondant.
I discovered poured fondant when I made petits fours. It’s a sugar-based icing that is heated until the “soft ball” stage, or 235-240º F. If you have a candy thermometer handy, use it, but it’s NOT necessary. Since we’re only making a small amount of icing, I can pretty much guarantee you that boiling the icing for 10-20 seconds will bring you to the soft ball stage. Easy.
The cool part about fondant? It sets, hard and glossy, when it cools. So once you’ve heated it enough, you whisk it off the heat until it starts to thicken and pour it over your cake. And like magic, it’ll harden and you’ll have totally perfect, totally professional-looking icing on your cake. The icing in the photos? Completely dry and set, even though it looks like it was just poured. And if it cools too much before you’re ready to ice, just re-heat it to thin.
Plus, it tastes amazing because I use fresh clementine juice for the liquid as opposed to water. Give it a try, I’m sure you’ll love it.
Candied Clementine Cake
Makes One Bundt Cake
1 1/2 Cup Candied Clementine Puree, around 5-8 clementines
1/2 Cup Vegetable Oil
1 1/4 Cup Soymilk, or other non-dairy milk
1/4 Cup Sugar
2 Cups All-Purpose Flour
1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
2 Fresh Clementines, for garnish
Clementine Poured Fondant
1 1/4 Cup Confectioner’s Sugar
3 Tbs Fresh Clementine Juice, or other citrus (about 3 clementines)
Preheat oven to 350º F.
Puree the clementines in a food processor until fairly smooth, but small bits of peel are desirable in my opinion!
Combine the clementine puree with the oil, soymilk, and sugar. Whisk until smooth.
Mix flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in another bowl.
Grease a bundt pan with spray oil, vegan margarine like Earth Balance, or vegetable shortening. Scoop a few spoonfuls of the dry mixture into the greased bundt pan and turn the pan to coat the sides and center spike. Rap the pan against the counter to loosen any extra flour and pour it back into the dry mixture.
Fold the dry mixture into the wet mixture until combined. Pour the batter into prepared bundt pan. It’s okay if it’s a little thick.
Bake at 350º F for 45-50 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean. Let cool upside-down on a large plate. After a few minutes the cake should drop out of the pan onto the plate in one piece, assuming you didn’t miss any spots when greasing and dusting with flour. Let cake cool completely before icing.
Clementine Poured Fondant
Whisk powdered sugar with 3 Tbs of clementine juice. Add to a small sauce pan and bring to a rolling boil for 10-20 seconds, or until it reaches the soft-ball stage (235-240º F).
Remove from heat and whisk constantly until it starts to thicken. At first, the icing will be a glossy yellow (similar to egg yolks), and it will gradually thicken and become lighter as it cools. You want to pour it over the cake when it’s very clearly thickened, but not too cool (i.e. thick) to pour. If the icing becomes too thick, simply reheat and start again.
Dust the cake with powdered sugar to finish, and garnish with fresh clementine segments.
February 9th, 2009
When Valentine’s day rolls around, there are a lot of desserts to choose from. There’s a lot of red, and a lot of hearts, and lots of strawberries. In February. I’m not opposed to buying stuff out of season, but I decided to go with something a little different for a V-day dessert this year.
Clementines are in season, and they are totally yummy. They’re small, easy to peel, sweet as sugar, and seedless. You’d think that simmering them in simple syrup for a couple hours would be overkill, but in fact it actually tones down the sweetness, and brings out some of the bitterness of the peel. The sugary sweet clementines become more complex, slightly bitter, but retain their bright citrus flavor.
If you’re not into candying the whole fruit, I ran across this recipe online for candy-coating the segments. They’d stand in very nicely for the whole fruit, and it doesn’t take as long.
These make a simple but decadent dessert, topped with crushed pistachios, shaved bittersweet chocolate, and served with a small demitasse cup of hot cocoa. It’s the perfect treat for the darling clementine in your life.
Candied Clementines
Makes 12
12 Clementines, washed
4 Cups Sugar
3 Cups Water
Wash the clementines well. Pierce them 8-10 times with a toothpick. In a large, deep pot, combine clementines, sugar and water.
Bring to a simmer, covered, and simmer for 1-2 hours depending on the level of bitterness you’d like in your clementines. Be careful to simmer, and not boil! Let the clementines cool in the syrup. (Save the simple syrup for additions to drinks and desserts.)
Serve clementines with crushed pistachios and shaved chocolate.
Before you ask, I’m not exactly sure how to store these. I’d guess an airtight container, in the fridge to be safe. I’d bring them to room temperature before serving.
Hot Cocoa
Small Portions For two
2 Tbs Dutch Pressed Cocoa Powder
1 1/2 Tbs Sugar
1 Cup Soymilk (or other non-dairy milk)
Combine cocoa and sugar in a small pot. Add a dribble of soymilk and whisk to form a paste. Add the rest of the soymilk and heat until steaming. Serve in demitasse cups.
February 4th, 2009
