crispy & spicy tempura vegetables

I love tempura, and as a crunch junkie its a fantastic way to add texture to vegetables.  Whilst not being the healthiest way to eat them, these make a delicious starter or snack.

Who doesn’t like a very crispy fried onion ring?

I wanted to take the crunchiness up a notch, but I couldnt find panko crumbs, so I pondered over a few alternatives and thought ‘why  not take rice crackers and grind them up? So that is exactly what I did.

I also wanted to add a bit of spice to the batter as this can often be a bit lacking.

This is what you need to make a batch of tempura batter for aprox one small head of broccoli broken up into florets and a few onion rings.  Just keep making batter if you run out and want to fry more vegetables.

You can use any kind of vegetables. I think courgette, onion rings, broccoli, cauliflower, peppers and mushrooms work really well.

What you need to make this:

• 250ml ice cold soda water
• 1/2 cup flour (plus 2 Tbs) and a bit extra for dusting
• 1/2 cup corn flour
• 2 tsp Chinese 5 spice
• 1 packet rice crackers (100gm) original flavour or a cup of panko crumbs
• sunflower oil for frying
• 100 – 150gm small vegetable pieces

How to make these:

• Heat enough oil in a deep pot
• cut the vegetables into small pieces or onion rings
• in a bowl dust the vegetables in flour
• lightly mix the dry ingredients, spice and soda water together using a whisk (it will be quite thin and a bit lumpy)
• in a food processor grind the rice crackers to a fine crumb, or use a cup of panko crumbs
• when the oil is hot, dip the floured vegetable pieces into the batter and then dip them into the crumbs to lightly coat and drop into the (this is a bit messy, so work quickly and close to the hot oil)
• turn the vegetables over when brown on one side
• scoop out with a slotted spoon and drain on a few layers of kitchen paper

All the exotic flavours of fennel, anise, cloves, cinnamon, black pepper and cardomom of the 5 spice makes the vegetables a little more exciting.

Serve immediately with soya sauce or this chilli-lime dipping sauce