Category: Chinese

Perfect Tempura Every Time

Tempura is Touchy!

Lets nail down the issues most people have with making Tempura, starting with buying it in a box.  For the most part, you’re just buying a box of flour with a fancy picture on the front that shows you how good it could look if you buy their product.  But does that make sense?  You’ve got flour at home in your kitchen, right?  Oh, maybe you need the directions on the back of the box.  Wait, that doesn’t make sense either because you’ve got the web at your finger tips.  You can just look it up.  So here we are, you and I, and we’re going to get through this together.

Tempura in a Box

Soda Water or Club SodaThe truth is that no matter what the contents of that Tempura box are, flour, corn starch or whatever, the box directions are WRONG!  Sure they give you a few pointers from step 1 to 3 but they don’t talk about a few key issues you will have if you don’t mix it in the right order, if you just use regular tap water or if you don’t keep your batter ice cold.  That’s right.  If you ignore any one of these 3 things, your Tempura is not going to turn out right.

Tempura Ingredients:

1 egg yoke
1 cup Tonic or Seltzer Water, Carbanated is the key
1 cup Flour

  • Mix the ingredients in a bowl over the top of another bowl full of ice water
  • Stir the liquids first, then add the flour and don’t over mix; leave it lumpy
  • Use ice cold Tonic or Seltzer water, not Tap, to get the batter to poof up

Watch the video tutorial and follow these simple instructions and you will have perfect Tempura, every single time.

Oriental Salad with Dressing

Oriental SaladOriental Salad made with Leftovers!

There’s nothing that top secret about an Oriental Salad.  But I’m going to make one using leftovers.  I can walk into almost any kitchen, open the refrigerator and turn out a gourmet dish.  Obviously a salad is a weak example, but it is an example none the less.  Lomo Saltado was left over in my refrigerator today and I decided to turn out an Oriental Salad.  Not that that’s too difficult in itself, but the secret to an oriental salad lies in the dressing.  So, though I’m whipping out a quick salad, I want the main focus to be two things, leftovers and the dressing.

The best part is everybody has leftovers.  So there is a very large variety of options you could probably turn out in your own salad.  Beef and Chicken are the easiest, and since my Lomo Saltado recipe has onions and peppers in it as well, I feel like this is the best choice for an Oriental Salad as well as an excellent opportunity to introduce my oriental salad dressing. There are two sauces you need to be aware of; Sriracha, made by Rooster and Kikkoman’s Tempura Dipping Sauce. Sriracha is HOT but it has an excellent flavor for oriental foods that only it can provide.  Use this sparingly and to your desired tastes.  Tempura Dipping sauce is great for many things.  I use this when I make Lo Mein or Ham Fried Rice!

Sriracha and Tempura Dipping SauceOriental Salad Dressing Ingredients:

½ cup Mayonnaise
1 tsp Oyster Sauce
1 tsp Sesame Oil
½ tsp Sriracha
2 oz Tempura Dipping Sauce

All the ingredients are pretty basic for this salad.  Just be sure to add onions, peppers and some sort of Crispy noodle.  I use uncooked Ramen on purpose just to show that it can be done and it can still taste excellent.  The Dressing is simple and lies as follows in the above ingredients.  Make sure you try an Oriental Salad with this Oriental Dressing next time you’re craving it.

Lomo Saltado with Hash Browns

Lomo SaltadoLomo Saltado for breakfast?

If you’re like me, you probably wouldn’t mind Lomo Saltado for breakfast, it’s that good.  But could you substitute those French fries for hash browns?  It wasn’t even a question for me.  I got home with a grocery bag of ingredients for this recipe when I soon realize I forgot to by French fries.  I suppose I could’ve chopped up a few of my russets, but when I realized I had hash browns in the freezer, my curiosity dominated my decision making.  Lomo Saltado with Hash browns it is!

This dish is Peruvian in nature.  Though I don’t follow the intended recipe to a “T”, my recipe is quite good.  If you aren’t familiar with this dish, let me break it down for you.  This is another one of those “East meets West” kind of recipes, just like the Chow Mein recipe we talked about the other day.  Depending on what kind of beef cut you want to go with, you can chop up Mongolian style slices of a filet mignon, beef flank or a chuck, then of course marinate in soy, garlic, cumin and some chopped Jalapeno.  In this Vegies for Lomo Saltadocase, I’m using a sliced chuck cut into 1/8 inch slices.  An assortment of vegetables is stir fried and mixed with beef and a secret sauce, then tossed with French Fries and served over rice.  And there you have it; Lomo Saltado.

Of course I’m showing you how effective a decent substitute can be.  I believe a substitute is effective if the use can be logically explained in a manner that everyone understands its purpose and the flavor still holds its integrity.  In this case it’s a TomAto/Tomato scenario.  French fries and Hash browns are just salted potatoes.  And for argument sake, the Hash browns aren’t deep fried, so it might even be a pinch healthier for you.

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Lomo Saltado Ingredients:

1 lbs slice Beef
1 Sliced Bell Pepper
½ sliced Onion
1 Large Tomato or 2 Romas
1 Potato sliced into French Fries or Hash Browns
Fresh Chopped Cilantro to taste
2 cups of cooked long grain rice

Beef Marinade:

2 tbsp of Soy
1 tsp of Hoisin
1 tsp of water
1 chopped Jalapeno
4 chopped Garlic Cloves
½ tsp of Cumin

Saute Vegetable sauce:

2 tbsp of Soy
2 tbsp of Balsamic Vinegar
Fresh ground Black Pepper to taste
Marinate the Beef for 15 minutes minimum, then cook thoroughly.  Cook the rice and cook the Hash browns or French fries.  Sauté the vegetables in the soy and balsamic, adding the pepper.  Mix all ingredients together and serve your Lomo Saltado over rice.