Quick ideas
Tempura asparagus
A quick and addictive dish. This is a snack for 2 using our standard asparagus bunch size. Be prepared to feel a compulsion to make it again straight away. There is never enough. The trick to light, crisp, gossamer-thin batter is to bring it together just before using and to be quick and carefree in the mixing – the lumps add character and texture.
Cook's notes
This recipe does involve deep frying, so a deep pan and a food thermometer are incredibly helpful tools to have. As is a wide slotted spoon to remove the asparagus.
Ingredients
For the tempura:
- 200g asparagus
- sunflower or vegetable oil
- 50g plain flour
- 50g rice flour (or another 50g of plain flour)
- 2 tsp cornflour
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 160ml cold sparkling water
- salt
For the dipping sauce:
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tbsp mirin
- 1 tsp light brown sugar
- 2cm piece fresh ginger, peeled & finely grated
Method
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Step 1
Trim off any tough ends from the asparagus, the bottom inch or so, and cut each spear into 5cm pieces. You want stalks no thicker than a pencil so if they are fat, split them evenly lengthways, too.
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Step 2
Heat the oil in a high sided pan. You should only need about an inch and a half of oil to fry in. Slowly bring the oil up to 190⁰C.
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Step 3
Meanwhile, mix the dipping sauce ingredients together in a small bowl.
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Step 4
To make the batter, sift the dry ingredients into a bowl, mix well and add a generous pinch of salt. When the oil is at temperature, add the cold sparkling water to the dry ingredients and mix it together fast and loosely; a quick stir rather than a whisk is good as you want a few lumps and imperfections.
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Step 5
Dip the asparagus into the batter one at a time and gently drop into the oil. Don’t put more than 8 in at a time, to prevent the oil temperature from dropping too much. Fry for 2 mins or so or until golden, crisp and buoyant.
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Step 6
Remove carefully with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper to soak up excess oil. Bring the oil back up to temperature and repeat until all of your aspasagus is cooked. Scoff hot with the dipping sauce on the side.