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Tendon (Tempura Rice Bowl)
Serves 2 · About 50 min
A rice bowl topped with shrimp, eggplant and kabocha squash tempura, with a sweet-salty sauce poured over. The tempura is fried in a small amount of oil in a frying pan.
① Make the dressing→② Prep the toppings→③ Make the batter→④ Fry→⑤ Pour on the sauce and serve
What to buy
Fish
Vegetables
Flour
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How to make it
1
Make the dressing
- Put 3 tbsp soy sauce, 3 tbsp mirin, 1 tbsp sugar and 3 tbsp water in a small pot
- Put on medium heat. When it boils, turn to low heat and simmer for 1–2 minutes. Turn off the heat and set aside
How to tell it's doneThe sugar has dissolved, and small bubbles are popping around the edge.
2
Prep the toppings
- Remove the heads of the shrimp if they have them, and peel off the shell, leaving the tail on. Poke a bamboo skewer shallowly into the back and pull out the black vein
- Make 3–4 shallow cuts with a knife on the belly side of each shrimp (so they don't curl up much when fried). Pat them dry well with paper towels
- Cut the stem off the eggplant, cut it in half lengthwise, then cut each half in half lengthwise again (4 pieces from 1 eggplant)
- Scoop out the seeds and stringy part of the kabocha with a spoon, place it cut side down on a cutting board, and cut into slices about 7 mm thick (it's hard, so put your hand on the back of the knife and push slowly)
- Lightly dust the shrimp, eggplant and kabocha with 1 tbsp cake flour using a tea strainer or spoon
How to tell it's doneThe shrimp are patted dry, and all the pieces have a thin white coat of flour.
Be carefulIf water is left on the shrimp, the oil will splatter when you fry them. Pat them dry well with paper towels.
3
Make the batter
- Put 90 ml cold water in a bowl and add 60 g cake flour
- Mix lightly, about 10 times, with cooking chopsticks. A few lumps of flour are fine
How to tell it's doneWhen you lift it with chopsticks, it flows down thickly.
Be carefulIf you mix too much, the batter becomes hard and heavy. Make it right before frying.
4
Fry
- Put about 400 ml vegetable oil (2 cm deep) in a frying pan and put it on medium heat
- Touch the tip of dry cooking chopsticks to the bottom of the oil. When fine bubbles fizz straight up, it's about 170°C. If no bubbles come up, it's still too cool
- Dip the kabocha, then the eggplant, then the shrimp in the batter and put them in the oil in that order. Put in only 3–4 pieces at a time
- Fry kabocha and eggplant for 2–3 minutes, shrimp for about 2 minutes. Flip once halfway with cooking chopsticks
- Put the fried pieces on a rack or a tray lined with paper towels to drain the oil
- When you finish frying, turn off the heat right away
How to tell it's doneThe batter is light golden and crispy, and the bubbles get smaller and fewer. A bamboo skewer goes easily through the kabocha. Cut one shrimp in half: it is white all the way through, with no see-through parts.
Be carefulSplattering oil can easily burn you. Gently slide the pieces in from the side closest to you. Don't leave the stove while frying. If you must leave, always turn off the heat.
5
Pour on the sauce and serve
- Put 200 g of rice in each bowl and pour 1 tbsp of the sauce from step 1 over each
- Quickly dip each tempura piece in the sauce, one at a time, and put it on the rice
- Pour a little of the remaining sauce over the top
ReadyThe sauce coats all the tempura, and the brown sauce has soaked into the rice.
📚 Learn more about this dish
🥬 Ingredient guide
🔪 Cutting & cooking tips
If it didn't work out
The coating is soggyThe oil wasn't hot enough, or you put in too many at once. Check the chopstick bubbles in step 4 and fry a few at a time.
The coating comes offYou didn't dust enough flour in step 2, or water was left on. Pat dry, then dust with flour.
The shrimp curl upThe cuts in step 2 were too shallow. Make cuts on the belly side, press gently with your fingers to stretch the shrimp straight, then fry.
The sauce is too saltyYou used too much. Next time start with 1 tbsp each, taste, and add more.
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