Tempura Katsu
We challenged Martyn Odell, @lagomchef, to develop a veggie alternative to a classic dish. This is two recipes in one, the katsu sauce is a super versatile and super delicious vegan version (normally comes with honey), the apple brings the sweetness to the party. The tempura veggies are something really delicious, just dunked in the sauce on their own.
Katsu sauce
1 white onion, diced
8 garlic cloves
1 carrot, chopped
1 apple, chopped
Veg oil
300ml veg stock
1 tbsp curry powder
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp plain flour
Method
Pop a pan on the heat and dissolve a stock cube or warm up some stock, you don’t need much.
In a sauce pan, gently fry the onion, garlic, carrot and apple in oil for 3-5 minutes until nice and soft. When preparing the veggies chuck the peels and ends into the stock pan.
When the veggies are soft add the curry powder and cover the veggies in stock, gently simmer for 5 minutes then blitz to a smooth sauce.
Add soy sauce to the sauce, adjust seasoning then add flour, blitz and return to a low heat to thicken.
Now make your tempura mix by mixing together cornflour, plain flour, egg and ice cold water. Try not to over mix, a few lumps are ok. A use straight away as the cold batter and hot oil gives you the crunch.
Heat a pan of oil to 180°c (if you don’t have a temperature probe drop a little batter to see if it fizzes straight away).
Dip the veggies into the batter and fry for 1-2 minutes or until nice and crispy. Don’t overload the pan, this will allow the oil to stay hot and get the veggies nice and crispy.
Serve the veggies with a big pile of rice, sauce and some fresh coriander and chilli.
Vegetable Tempura
140g cornflour
60g plain flour
1 egg
200ml ice cold water
200g asparagus
200g broccoli
veg oil for frying
Garnish
1 red chilli
Fresh coriander