Japanese Kakiage Tempura : Crispy Vegetable Fritters
Kakiage is a type of Japanese tempura made from an assortment of thinly sliced vegetables. It's deep-fried to golden perfection making it so crispy and delicious.
Sift flour into a bowl and refrigerate with water in another bowl.
Peel and cut the onion in half, then slice thinly. Cut the carrot into sticks and put them aside. Cut the shiso leaves thinly. Cut the sweet potato into sticks same as the carrot.
Soak them in ice water for around 10-15 minutes. *3
Drain the vegetables well using a colander or paper towels to remove excess moisture completely.
Deep Frying
Start heating oil in a deep frying pan to 170 degrees (350°F).
Place the sliced vegetables in a bowl and coat with 2 tbsp flour.
Remove the water bowl and flour bowl from the fridge. Sift in the flour and some salt into the water bowl and mix together. Try to avoidmixing it too much to avoid the batter becoming glutinous.
Add the sliced vegetables and mix them with batter, try not to over mix.
Scoop the mixture with a ladle and with a pair of chopsticks, slide the batter and vegetable mixture into the oil gently.
Deep fry the batter till golden brown on both sides.
Serve with salt or tempura dipping sauce. *4
Notes
*1 When I updated the images, I did not have shiso leaves so instead, I used green peas. *2 Nutritional value is indication only as it is difficult to calculate accurately. Oil absorption is culcurated 10% of ingredients weight. Oil amount displayed in the ingredients list is the absorbed amount. It is required more than 50ml to deep fry. *3 This step helps to crisp up the vegetables while removing any excess starch.*4 See tentsuyu recipe here