Caribbean Tempura

Submitted by Cookworm

"I was inspired to create a flavor fusion of Japanese tempura with delectable Caribbean ingredients. My picky nine-year-old ate onions and red peppers without even knowing it and loved this!"

 

• Ready In: 55mins
• Ingredients: 15
• Serves: 4-6

ingredients

• 1 sweet red pepper
• 1 red onion
• 1 sweet potato
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 1⁄2 ice water
• 1 1⁄2 cups flour
• 3⁄4 cup coconut (small cut)
• cooking oil (for frying)
• 1⁄2 cup dark rum
• 1 cup beef stock
• 1 teaspoon ginger (fresh grated)
• 1⁄2 teaspoon salt
• 1⁄2 cup brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 minced garlic clove

directions

1. Peel sweet potato and cut into round slices. Cut red pepper into strips. Cut red onion into wide rings.
2. Prepare batter by whisking cold water into egg yolks. Add 1 1/2 cups of flour and coconut in all at once and stir just to mix.
3. Prepare dipping sauce by combining rum, beef stock, ginger, salt, brown sugar and minced garlic clove. Bring to a low boil. Add 2 tablespoons of flour and whisk until thickened to desired consistency. Turn heat down to lowest setting to keep warm.
4. Dip vegetables into batter and fry in hot oil either in a fry pan on the stove or in deep fryer till outside is crispy. Note: the sweet potatoes take a little longer to fry through so that they are soft. Test with a fork to determine if they are done.
5. Serve with sauce and enjoy.

Reviews

[alexwu8]

good!

 

[tigerduck]

I hate giving bad reviews but this recipe just didn't work for us. I loved the idea behind this dish and still think it is a great idea! I love all the ingredients and the way they are used, but just felt that the amounts weren't quite balanced. I couldn't really taste the coconut in the batter which I think is a pity. I also found the rum taste in the dipping sauce overpowering. I liked the ginger in the dip, but felt that the sauce would be improved by the addition of chili. Furthermore, I found the fried vegetables not crispy enough. I know that my mother always fries her french fries twice to get them really crispy. Maybe this would be possible with this recipe too. My BF also didn't really enjoy the tempura and we decided not to keep the leftovers. Another thing is that the recipe doesn't include how much water to add. It says 1 1/2 but not of what. After a lot of thinking, I figured out that it's probably meant to be 1 1/2 cups. I also felt that there was too much dipping sauce for the amount of fried vegetables. Please note that in my opinion, this recipe does have some potential, but I feel that it needs quite a lot of changes to make this a great recipe.