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
The 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.
There really isn’t a lot to be said about making a Cold Cucumber. It’s simple. I have yet to find anyone that doesn’t think it’s refreshing. It’s normally an appetizer or side dish but I often find myself eating an entire bowl of this recipe for lunch. So that being said, if you don’t already know about this recipe, I will be imparting it to you here today.
Partially peel Cucumber into stripes. Cut in half and in half again if your cold cucumber is large. Slice bite size pieces on a 45 degree angle and toss in a bowl with all the ingredients. Serve your cold cucumber immediately, and enjoy!
Oh my god I love a Sushi Hand roll! I’m not even playin’. I honestly don’t remember the very first time it was really introduced in my life, but I do know for certain that it wasn’t something I grew up with. I didn’t try Sushi until I was a grown man. I’d even go a step further and say that I might have even been a grown drunk man. This was late night food for me when I had the munchies. At least that’s how I remember it. In my mid twenties I picked up some work that was paying a lot of money; a lot of money for me anyway. Plus I was single, and I was traveling to different jobs all the time, so I got to meet a ton of new faces that helped me pay out my ass with a ton of fresh experiences. One of my favorites was a club in Denver called, “The Church”!
The Church was an old Cathedral, Roman Catholic style building that was turned into the hottest club in town. Oh yeah, not to mention Sushi. Crazy Right? I’m telling you, nothing was a bigger surprise to me than to find a small Sushi bar in the very back of a 3 level floor, wall to wall, shoulder to shoulder college fest of drunken dancers. However, in the condition I was in at 1:00 in the morning, NOTHING could’ve made me happier either.
If you don’t know by now, there are all forms of Sushi Rolls, and these days, every bar out there pretty much makes up their own rolls. Sure there are many traditional’s with the same basic ingredients, but there always seems to be a little tweak here and there in the way they’re prepared. I never have the same roll made exactly the same at different restaurants. But one thing I have found, is that any true not in it for the hype Sushi lover, will order Sushi Hand Rolls. So breaking it down simply, I’ve chosen the Spicy Tuna Hand Roll to demonstrate how easy this can be for you to do on your own at home.
Sushi Ingredients
1 Ahi Tuna Steak
1 cup Sushi Rice
1 Green Onion (chopped scallions)
1/4 Sliced Cucumber
1/4 cup Mayo
1 tsp Sriracha (rooster sauce)
6 Half Sheets of Nori (seaweed)
Spicy Mayo Mix is just combining the Mayonnaise and Sriracha rooster sauce.
All good Sushi boils down to proper preparation of the rice. It is said that most chefs wash rice for months and sometimes years before they are ever trained to cut and roll sushi. The rice must be properly rinsed and washed, soaked, then brought to a boil, reduced to a simmer for twenty minutes, cooled, then mixed with salt, sugar and rice vinegar. The mixture and recipe for perfect Sushi rice can be found all over the web if you want a professional opinion from a Sushi Chef. Just know that if you decide to skip this step, or even purchase the wrong rice, the flavor of your rolls will MOST DEFINITELY suffer.
Sushi Hand Roll Instructions
1) Lay down the Nori smooth side down, texture side up, length wise left to right.
2) Wet your hands with water and grab 1/3 cup of Sushi rice.
3) Place the rice in the center of the left hand side of the Nori and press diagonally from the top corner until the rice is 3/8″ thick.
4) Make a Diagonal indention in the rice by pressing your index finger in the center of the rice, then garnish with cucumber.
5) Then spread one heaping tbs of spicy tuna over the cucumber leaving the bulk towards the top left corner.
6) Using two hands, pull the Nori to the edge of the table with the right hand, then use your left hand to catch the rice side.
7) With your right hand, roll the rice side first starting with the bottom corner of the Nori, rolling over the rice in a funnel like fashion. Make sure that the bottom of the roll goes to a point as you turn the roll in your left hand, leaving the top exposed like an ice cream cone. Continue all the way around until you reach the last corner from the end of the Nori. Stop there and place one or two pieces of rice on the corner and close the remaining Nori to the roll by sticking the rice corner to the cone.
8) Top off the Spicy Tuna with Scallions and Tempura crumbs if you’ve got them. Enjoy your Sushi Hand Roll and be sure to check out my Yakitori Chicken!
The 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.
