Veggies from Other Lands: Vegetable Tempura from Japan

I am introducing three new article series spawned by travel: Veggies from Other Lands, Travel Tales through Pictures, and A Travel Life’s Essentials. This is because our normal pace of travel is not returning soon, despite the vaccines. We are not resuming our trips until our anniversary in August. Each series is an offshoot of our travels. “Veggies from Other Lands” is inspired by popular dishes of other countries. “Travel Tales through Pictures” will feature travel photographs turned into paintings, and “A Travel Life's Essentials” will focus on things that must be in place for a life of travel in retirement.

This week, I start with the first, "Veggies from Other Lands." My husband and I are already in our 70s and we should be eating as healthy as possible. Vegetables have become king…and queen. So I have decided to feature vegetable recipes I have found from around the world. This should take the boredom out of salads so vegetables can become the better main dish on our table. First on my list is Air Fryer Vegetable Tempura. I am missing Japan (and actually the rest of Asia) so much. Food is one way to reminisce the awesome places we have been to. Turning the dishes into healthy versions is a plus.

Photo Credit: tripadvisor.com

Tempura is one of the most popular Japanese dishes. Whenever I went out dining at a Japanese restaurant, it was the dish I always ordered because I could not make it. That is until the batter mix became readily available in local grocers. The dish usually consists of seafood, meat, and vegetables that have been coated with this famous light and soft batter and deep-fried to perfection. It was actually introduced by the Portuguese who were then in Nagasaki as the fritter-cooking technique of the 16th century. The origin of the name is the Latin phrase quatuor anni tempora, the Ember Days when no meat is supposed to be consumed. So I can imagine that it really started as a vegetable dish. And that’s how I now want to eat it. Sometimes, I will cheat and have one shrimp tempura.

And then the air-fryer also became popular. It is a small countertop convection oven designed to simulate deep frying without submerging the food in a ton of oil. Now, how fabulously healthy is that?  A fan circulates hot air at high speed, producing a crisp layer via what is known as the Maillard reaction, the chemical reaction between amino acids and reducing sugars that gives browned food its distinctive flavor. Actually, convection ovens have been in wide use since 1945. But it was only in 2010 when  Philips introduced the Airfryer brand of a convection oven, using its patented Rapid Air technology, at a consumer electronics fair in Berlin. Early air fryers were barrel-shaped and that is what I still have. Later models have come to resemble toaster ovens and pressure cookers and even share their functions.

So, let’s make Air Fryer Vegetable Tempura!

Ingredients

1 cup sweet potato, cut as thin round slices

1 cup carrot cut 3 inches long and 1/2 inch wide

1 cup eggplant cut as thin round slices

1 cup broccoli florets

1 cup red bell pepper, cut 3 inches long and 1/2 inch wide

Tempura Batter Mix (McCormick or Kikkoman) 

For the dipping sauce:

3/4 cup dashi (Japanese soup stock) or chicken stock (I use Better than Bouillon chicken base)

3 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp mirin (Japanese rice wine like sake but with lower alcohol and higher sugar content)

2 tsp sugar

4 pcs round radish, grated and lightly squeezed to drain ( optional)

Steps

1    1. Preheat the AirFryer to 400 degrees F or 200 degrees C.  Preheat the oven to 200 degrees F or 95 degrees C.

      2. Prepare the vegetables and sprinkle with a little salt.

     3. Prepare the batter according to the directions on the box.

     4. Fry the vegetables:

*Spray the fry basket with oil. 

*Immediately dip the vegetables in the batter and arrange them in a single layer in the Air Fryer basket. You may need to do several batches. Spray with oil.

*Cook each batch until golden brown for 10 minutes.

*Transfer to the oven to keep the vegetable tempura warm and crispy until you have all of them ready to serve.

     5. Make the dipping sauce :

* Combine dashi (or chicken stock), soy sauce, mirin, and sugar in a small saucepan.

*Bring it to a simmer until the sugar is dissolved. Turn off the heat and let cool.

*Grate the radish, squeeze water out gently, and mix with the sauce.

6. Serve with hot steamed rice. If preferred, use chopsticks.

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