Chef Kar Delight

Japanese Delights 2024
7.7 Tempura Yakisoba

I shall prepare 21 delights of Japan and publish them in 7 consecutive episodes. Episodes 1 to 6 were already published and now is the final episode 7.

Yakisoba 焼きそば Stir Fried Noodle

Yakisoba (Japanese: 焼きそば. 'fried noodle'), is a Japanese noodle stir-fried dish. Usually, soba noodles are made from buckwheat flour, but soba in yakisoba are Chinese-style noodles (chuka soba) made from wheat flour, typically flavored with a condiment similar to Worcestershire sauce. The dish first appeared in food stalls in Japan around the 1930s.

Vegetable Yakisoba 野菜焼きそば

Ingredients

For Yakisoba noodles

. 250 grams Chinese-style noodles (chuka soba) or fresh ramen noodles

. 1 tablespoon vegetable oil

For stir-fry

. 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
. 2 Shiitake mushrooms soaked in water until soft

. 1 carrot (chopped into strips)
. 100 grams cabbage (chopped into strips)
. 80 grams onions (sliced)
. ¼ teaspoon salt
. ¼ teaspoon black pepper

Yakisoba sauce
. 2 tablespoons ketchup

. 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
. 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

. 1 tablespoon soy sauce

To serve

. green onion (sliced)

. aonori (green nori flakes)
. benishoga (red pickled ginger)

Instructions
1. To make the yakisoba sauce, stir together the ketchup, oyster sauce, Worchester sauce and soy sauce until evenly mixed.

2. Boil fresh ramen noodles for 1 minute.

3. Drain and rinse repeatedly with cold water while agitating with your hand to remove excess starch. When the water runs clear and the noodles are cold, drain well and shake off excess water.

4. Toss the noodles with 1 tablespoon vegetable oil to coat evenly.

5. Heat a large, heavy-bottomed frying pan over high heat. Add 1 tablespoon vegetable oil.
6. Add cabbage, carrot, mushrooms and onions and then season with salt and black pepper. Stir-fry until the vegetables and mushroom are cooked but still vibrant in color.
7. Add the parboiled noodles to the pan and stir-fry to reheat them.

8. Pour the yakisoba sauce over the noodles and toss to distribute evenly.

9. Stop tossing the yakisoba noodles for 20 seconds at a time to allow the sauce to caramelize.

10. Serve the yakisoba sprinkled with green onion, aonori with a mound of benishoga on top.

Egg Tempura 鶏卵の天ぷら

Ingredients
. 4 frozen eggs

. flour, cake flour or all purpose flour

. 3 tbsp. Tempura flour
. 4 tbsp. water
. vegetable oil for deep frying

Directions
1. Mix Tempura flour and water in a bowl to make batter.

2. Peel the frozen eggs, dust with flour, then coat with the batter.
3. Deep fry eggs in oil at 170C (338F) for 6 minutes. When they float up to the surface, flip them over to cook evenly. You can eat them with salt, soy sauce, Tempura sauce, Dashi broth, or any seasoning you like.

Japanese dashi soup stock

Ingredients
. 10g kombu kelp
. 20g katsuobushi bonito flakes,

or dashino moto (dried bonito) ,

or dried fish such as small sardine and mackerel

. 1L water

Method

1. Soak the kombu kelp:
In a medium sized saucepan, soak the 10g kombu kelp in 1L of water for 30 minutes.
Heat then add katsuobushi:
2. Heat the kombu kelp and water over low heat. Simmer slowly until it is almost boiling, then turn the heat off. Add the 20g katsuobushi flakes, and leave it to rest for 10 minutes.
3. Strain:
Strain the dashi with a sieve. Store or use for all your Japanese cooking needs.

Tempura sauce Tentsuyu 天つゆ

Ingredients

· 1 cup dashi soup stock

· 1 tablespoon soy sauce
· 1 tablespoon sake (or mirin)
· 1 ½ teaspoons sugar (leave it out if you use mirin)
· 1 teaspoon salt
· 300 grams daikon (optional)
· 20 grams ginger (optional)

Instructions
1. Add 1 cup dashi, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 1 tablespoon sake, 1 ½ teaspoons sugar, and 1 teaspoon salt to a pot and bring the mixture to a rolling boil.
2. Cook the tentsuyu for 1 minute over medium heat or until it no longer smells like alcohol.
3. For the tentsuyu condiments, peel and grate 300 grams daikon and 20 grams ginger separately. Daikon contains a lot of water, so I recommend lightly draining it so it does not water down your tempura sauce.
4. Serve the tempura dipping sauce hot with the grated daikon and ginger along with your favorite vegetable or shrimp tempura. If you don't plan to use it right away, store it in an airtight container for up to a week.

Tartar Sauce タルタルソース

Ingredients
. 1 large egg(s)
· 1/4 large onion 55-65g
· 4 Tablespoon Japanese mayonnaise
· 2 teaspoon rice vinegar
· 1/3 teaspoon salt
· 1/3 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

· 1/3 teaspoon sugar

Instructions

1. Add enough water to easily cover the egg in a pot. Bring it to a boil. When it is boiling, add the egg to the pot, and boil for exact 9 minutes.
2. Cut the onion into small pieces.

Preparation

1. In a bowl, add the boiled egg and smash it.
2. Add the cut onion, Japanese mayonnaise, rice vinegar, salt, black pepper, and sugar into the bowl. Mix well.

Tempura Batter

Mix Tempura flour (tempura batter mix) and water in a bowl

Garnish: Christmas Flower

Red ginger sliced (ginger + beets + rice vinegar + sugar), wasabi

7.7 Tempura Yakisoba 天ぷら焼きそば

Tempura is a Japanese dish of lightly battered and deep-fried seafood or vegetables that creates a light and crispy coating. The word "tempura fried" on a menu usually refers to food that has been dipped in batter and fried.

Tempura Yakisoba is the combination of different types of tempura and stir fried noodle.

▲ 19. Mebaru No Tempura Yakisoba めばるの天ぷら焼きそば

Rockfish Tempura (めばるの天ぷら) is deep-fried rockfish in Tempura batter. It has a very light feel even though it’s deep-fried, therefore this even appeals to people who do not prefer heavy dishes.

You can use any fish of your choice, but make sure to remove excess moisture from the fish. A lot of fish today are previously frozen and get watery when defrosted. This moisture will affect the texture of the batter when deep-fried. To absorb the moisture, wrap fish with a paper towel for a couple of hours or even overnight if you have time.

I use rockfish which is mebaru めばる, メバル/鮴 in Japanese.

Ingredients
· Rockfish fillet

. Salt, black pepper powder

. Tempura flour, ice cold water

. corn starch

. 3-4 cups neutral oil for frying

Instructions

1. Cut Rockfish fillet into 3 inch size piece. Mix fish with salt and black pepper and leave for 10 minutes. Remove moisture from fish with a paper towel. (Wrap fish with a paper towel longer in the fridge if you can.)

2. Mix Tempura flour and ice cold water for the batter.

3. Fill a shallow bowl with corn starch.

3. Heat oil to 350 F. Coat fish with corn starch. Dip fish in the batter and deep-fry for a couple of minutes until cooked through.

4. Plate with garnish, green bean tempura, lotus tempura, mushroom tempura, yam tempura and nori tempura.

5. Serve immediately with Vegetable Yakisoba, Tempura sauce and Tartar Sauce.

▲ 20. Ebi No Tempura Yakisoba 海老の天ぷら焼きそば

In Japan, Shrimp tempura is called ebi no tempura (海老の天ぷら) or ebiten (えび天). Ebi means shrimp and ten comes from tempura.

Ingredients
· 1 lb large shrimp peeled and deveined with tail on end

. Tempura flour, ice cold water

. corn starch

. 3-4 cups neutral oil for frying

Instructions

1. Prepare the shrimp. Peel the shrimp leaving the tail at the end. Devein the shrimp and then make very shallow tiny cuts across the underbelly of the shrimp and then again along both sides of the shrimp. Lightly squeeze and straighten the shrimp on a paper towel-lined plate.

2. Mix Tempura flour (tempura batter mix) and ice cold water in a bowl. Chill the batter and let it rest in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.
3. Fill a shallow bowl with corn starch.
4. In a heavy-bottomed pot, add the neutral oil enough to cover about 2 inches of oil in the pot. Place a candy thermometer onto the pot and heat to 350ºF (180ºC).
5. Gently coat the shrimp with corn starch and shake off any excess.
6. Remove the batter from the refrigerator and give it a quick mix. Dust each shrimp with corn starch. Dredge each shrimp into the batter covering thoroughly, remove any excess, and immediately slowly lower the shrimp into the oil while making a swirling motion to fry. Dip your fingers into the batter and drizzle it over the shrimp while it is frying. Fry each shrimp for about 2 minutes or until the shrimp is pink and the batter is light, golden, and crispy. Remove the tempura bits each time to avoid burning and overcrowding.

7. Cool and serve. Remove the cooked shrimp with a spider strainer or slotted spoon and place onto a wire rack to drain any excess oil.

8. Plate with garnish, egg tempura, green bean tempura and nori tempura.
9. Serve immediately with Vegetable Yakisoba, Tempura sauce and Tartar Sauce.

▲ 21. Vegetable Tempura Yakisoba 野菜の天ぷら焼きそば

Common vegetables for Tempura are kabocha squash, sweet potatoes, green beans, perilla/shiso leaves, eggplants, bell peppers, okra, mushrooms, lotus root, and onion.

Ingredients

. Orange sweet potato and purple yam cut into ¼-inch (6 mm) rounds and soak in water for 15–30 minutes to remove the excess starch. Then, pat dry them with paper towels.

. ⅛ kabocha squash cut into ¼-inch (6 mm) slices.

. 2 inch lotus root (renkon) cut into ¼-inch (6 mm) slices. Soak the lotus root in vinegar water (2 cups water + 1 tsp vinegar) for 5 minutes and pat dry them with paper towels.
. Shiitake mushrooms soaked in cold water and drained well.

. Green beans cut both ends.

. Nori sea weeds ¼ sheet.

. Tempura flour, ice cold water

. Corn starch

. 3-4 cups neutral oil for frying

Instructions

1. Mix Tempura flour (tempura batter mix) and ice cold water in a bowl. Chill the batter and let it rest in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.
2. Fill a shallow bowl with corn starch.
3. Heat oil in a pan for deep frying. Once the oil is hot enough (you can test by dropping some batter to hot oil, if it floats immediately, it is ready), dust each piece of vegetable or mushroom in corn starch, then dip in batter. No need to dust nori with corn starch, just dip the dull side in batter. Then deep fry until golden brown and crispy.

4. Remove and drain on a wire rack or paper towel.

5. Plate with garnish.
6. Serve immediately with Vegetable Yakisoba, Tempura sauce and Tartar Sauce.