Tempura Soba (Prawn & Vegetable Tempura)
Posted January 10th, 2016 in Food 2 Comments »A summer staple food in Japan – cold soba noodle with dipping sauce. Great to eat in a hot day!
There are few different types of noodle you can use for this “cold noodle + dipping sauce” dish. Soba, udon, somen, and chu-ka noodle. What are the differences?
Soba is made of buckwheat, and is grey-ish colour. Somen is very thin white Japanese noodles made of wheat flour, less than 1.3 mm in diameter. Udon is a type of thick wheat flour noodle. Chu-ka noodle is egg noodle which is often used for ramen.
At my house in Japan I used to eat udon a lot. I seldom ate soba while I was in Japan (and now still) – I’m not sure why it is, but I guess it’s because people near Kansai in Japan eat more udon than soba noodle for some reason.
Here in Perth I got some cha-soba noodles from a local Asian shop. Cha-soba noodles are soba noodles made from buckwheat and wheat flour with the added ingredient of fresh green tea leaves. You can smell green tea aroma from the noodle and they are really refreshing.
To accompany cha-soba noodles, I made some kakiage (mixed vegetables tempura) with chopped prawn. If you have tempura flour it’s super easy to make, but even if you don’t, it’s not that difficult.
Here is the recipe for prawn kakiage:
<Recipe> makes about 10 kakiage
- prawn (no shells & heads) … 1/2 cup
- chopped vegetables (I used onion, zucchini) … 1/2 cup
- plain flour … 3 tablespoons
- corn flour … 1 tablespoon
- salt … 1/4 teaspoon
- water … 50ml (or adjust the constancy)
- Chop prawns.
- Mix flour, salt and water in a mixing bowl. Add the prawns and vegetables and stir.
- Heat oil in a shallow frying pan (about 3 – 5cm) to 170℃.
- Using two spoons, carefully drop the tempura mixture into the oil. Fry over medium heat for both sides.
- Serve with cooked cold soba noodles.
I’m going to try this one! Been hankering for some J food recent and I haven’t attempted to make tempura yet. =)
Yes give it a try :))