And then visions of tempura came to mind and started dancing in front of our eyes.
For tonight's extraordinarily multicultural dinner, which hailed from Mexico, Italy, and Japan, we made Potato Tomatillo and Chipolte Salad, a tomato sauce ragu, and last but certainly not least, made-from-scratch vegetable tempura. That's right, ladies and gentlemen, from SCRATCH.
Potato, tomatillo and chipolte salad ingredients:
5 medium potatoes, peeled, diced, and boiled
6-8 small tomatillos, paper skins removed, and boiled until they turn a grayish-green
2 tbs of chipolte peppers
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 tbs of cilantro (dry)
1/2 cup chopped green scallions
a squeeze of lemon juice to taste
1. Boil potatoes until they are almost done and drop the tomatillos in; they need 6-8 minutes to cook
2. Drain separately
3. Put all ingredients except potatoes and scallions into a blender and blend until pureed
4. Sprinkle scallions on top and serve tomatillo mix as a sauce poured over the potatoes
On to Italy...
Tomato sauce ragu ingredients
Depending on how big of dish you want, chop equal parts onion, eggplant, squash, carrots, and zucchini
Half a can of pasta sauce
Garlic, oregano, salt and pepper to taste
Olive/regular oil
1. Saute onions and eggplant in oil until they cook a little bit
2. Throw in rest of vegetables and cook on low heat, covered, until they soften
3. Season and pour in pasta sauce, continue cooking on low until vegetables well-cooked al dente (cooking depends on amount vegetables)
But the fun only began with the batter...
Vegetable tempura batter ingredients:
4 tbs of corn starch
4-5 tbs of flour
1 beaten egg
1 cup of cold water (with ice)
Your choice of veggies - we used red onion (REALLY good choice), eggplant, zucchini, and yellow squash
2 cups of vegetable oil
1. Cut vegetables into half an inch thick strips and leave out on paper towels or plate to dry
2. Heat oil in large pan (that will prevent hot oil from splashing)
3. Mix water and egg in one bowl
4. In different bowl, mix all dry ingredients together
5. Mix dry and liquid ingredients in a big bowl and drop a few ice cubes directly into the batter
6. Check to make sure oil is hot enough by dropping a tiny bit of batter to see if it sizzles
7. Dredge each vegetable piece in batter and gently drop em in!
8. Make sure the pot of oil isn't too crowded so that vegetables fry evenly all around and turn once onto the other side; pull them out after a minute or two or when you see them getting golden/browned
9. Place tempura on plate covered in paper towels
10. Dip in soy sauce or anything else your heart desires
Mmmmmmmm................ good!
