Making Tempura!

I am continuing my resolve to take two Japanese culture classes a month. So far, I have done Zazen meditation and yesterday I got to learn how to make miso soup and tempura!

Firstly, real miso soup is made with a fish base. You boil a pot of water and then add bonito (fish flakes) to the water and continue to let it boil. I should add that our sensei did not feel that "fish flakes" was an accurate translation of the word "bonito." I think it would better translate as dehydrated fish pieces. Anyway, you let the fish flakes boil for awhile and then strain out the pieces. You then add miso paste (fermented soybean), tofu, and green onions to the soup. Miso paste is what gives miso soup it's salty flavor. It looks a little like peanut butter. The sensei explained that it could be smooth and not so salty or crunchy and extremely salty. Which type of miso paste your choose to use is up to personal preference.

Then we moved on to making tempura. I thought there would be some big magical secret to tempura, but it's a lot simpler than I thought. The batter is just egg, flour and water. You can add salt for extra flavor, although the Japanese don't usually add salt to the batter, but instead have a bowl of salt in which they dip the tempura before eating. As a class, we then battered and fried all sorts of veggies and seafood. Almost anything can be battered and fried.

In the end, we got to eat our delicious creation!

There is miso paste in the container. The pan has a variety of veggies waiting to be cooked. They include eggplant, mushroom, squash and potatoes.

The tofu ready to go into the miso soup.

A pan frying up the tempura items.

Finished tempura and sauce (which was basically soy sauce, miso soup and sugar boiled together).

Finished miso soup.