Prawn Tempura

Serves 2

Big juicy king prawns, deep fried and coated in a light crispy batter makes a very delicious fun starter or a wonderful side dish.

Tempura is Japanese; it is the type of batter used in deep fried cooking. Tempura is a very popular delicious dish. The trick to light, crispy, fluffy, batter is to use ice cold water, if the batter is cold it does not absorb as much oil.

Prawn tempura is very tasty, but you can tempura lots of other foods, scallops, squid and vegetables; asparagus is particularly good. Tempura is fabulous to serve as a starter to share, it is fun, quick, finger food and it goes wonderfully dipped in a sweet chilli sauce or mayonnaise. So for a relaxed dinner party or if the whole family is in on time for dinner this is a great meal.

For anyone feeling inspired, tempura ice cream is also very good; you just have to be very quick at making and serving it.

Ingredients

• 10 king prawns
• 1 egg
• 100g plain flour
• 225ml Ice cold Water

Method

1. Beat the egg and cold water together then mix the flour in. Don’t worry about lumps, that is how it should look.
2. Heat oil in a wok, dip prawns in batter and when the oil is hot carefully place the prawns in the oil one by one and let them fry for 1-2 minutes only.
3. Remove the prawns with a slotted spoon and lay them on pepper towel to remove excess oil.  Cook the rest of the prawns in the same way.
4. Serve with sweet chill sauce.