Please wait, the site is loading...

Food

How to make tempura batter: follow our step-by-step guide

by Ailsa Brown
How to make tempura batter: follow our step-by-step guide
Image: Toby Scott

Tempura is a dish that actually originated in Portugal, but was introduced to Japan in the 16th century. It usually consists of deep fried vegetables and seafood. The batter itself is very different to the traditional thick batter on fish and chips; it’s ultra-light, crisp, not greasy, and the colour is a very light brown. In Japan there are restaurants dedicated to serving just tempura and it may be served on top of rice or soba noodles.

Step by step

1. Make sure that whatever you are coating with the tempura batter is very dry. If need be, pat dry with kitchen paper. Measure out your flours and salt into a small bowl and heat the oil to 160°C for larger pieces of tempura-coated fish, 180°C for small and delicate quick-cooking ingredients like prawns.

2. Pour the cold liquid into a large bowl and tip in the dry ingredients. Poke the dry ingredients into the beer gently with the end of a wooden spoon or chopstick; don’t whisk it, as you want it really lumpy for the right texture.

3-IMG_1482
4-IMG_1486

3. Make sure that your oil is fully up to temperature; if you drop a little of the batter into the oil and it sizzles, it’s ready. Dip whatever you are coating with tempura batter into some extra flour in a shallow dish. Then, dip it into the tempura batter. Gently place your battered ingredient into the oil. Cook for 6-7 minutes for a large piece of fish, just a couple of minutes for prawns, 3-4 minutes for vegetables.

Temp

4. Once it has turned a very light golden brown, remove and drain on kitchen paper for a minute before serving. Scoop out any loose crispy bits of batter from the oil before frying further batches of tempura, to keep the oil clean, and make sure that it has got back up to the correct temperature.

Tempy1_1493

Helpful tips

• Make sure the liquid to make the tempura batter is suitably chilled. It’s vital that the mixture is as cold as possible and made just before frying.

• Make sure that whatever you are coating in the batter is dried thoroughly.

• Keep a constant temperature of the oil using a cooks’ thermometer. Make sure to bring it back up to temperature again before frying each piece of food, as the cold tempura will lower it.

• Do not be worried by the lumps in the batter, as they create little crispy pockets. If you over-mix your batter, gluten will develop, and that will make the batter heavy.

• You can substitute chilled sparkling water instead of beer, or even ice-cold still water.

Don`t miss

We value your privacy

We use cookies to help give you the best experience on our site and to allow us and third parties to customise the marketing content you see across websites and social media. For more information see our cookie policy.

Cookie Preference Centre

Learn more about what each cookie category does and choose your settings (toggle right to opt in or left to opt out). Cookie policy


Strictly Necessary

These technologies are needed to enable our websites and apps to run and to keep it secure.

Sainsbury's Magazine

These technologies tell us how customers use our sites and apps and provide information to help us improve the website, apps and your browsing experience.

Cookie name Duration
PHPSESSID Until the browsing session ends
device_view 1 month
viewedRecipes 1 year
subscription-{popup-version-date}-PopupClosed 12 days

Vimeo

Enables Vimeo videos on the site

Cookie name Duration
_derived_epik 1 year

Constant Commerce

Enables shopping tools for recipe ingredients

Cookie name Duration
cc_a_h 10 years
cc_a_s Until the browsing session ends

DoubleClick

DoubleClick Digital Marketing (DDM) is an integrated ad-technology platform that enables us to more effectively create, manage and grow high-impact digital marketing campaigns.

Cookie name Duration
DSID 10 days
IDE 1 year
RUL 11 months

Performance/Analytics

These technologies tell us how customers use our sites and apps and provide information to help us improve the website, apps and your browsing experience.

Google

Google Analytics tell us how customers use our sites and apps and provide information to help us improve the website, apps and your browsing experience.

Cookie name Duration
__gads 13 months
gadsTest Until the browsing session ends
_ga 28 months
_gat 1 minute
_gid 1 day
1P_JAR 1 month
ANID 10 days
CONSENT 18 years
NID 6 months
__Secure-3PAPISID 2 years
__Secure-3PSID 2 years
__Secure-3PSIDCC 1 year

Marketing/Targeting

These technologies help us decide which products, services and offers may be relevant for you. We use this data to customise the marketing content you see on websites, apps and social media. They also help us understand the performance of our marketing activities. These cookies are set by us or our carefully-selected third parties.

Pinterest

Pinterest conversion tracking gathers conversion insights and builds audiences to target based on actions our visitors have taken on the site.

Cookie name Duration
_pinterest_ct_rt 1 year
_pinterest_ct_ua 1 year
_pin_unauth 1 year

Outbrain

These technologies tell us how customers use our sites and apps and provide information to help us improve the website, apps and your browsing experience.

Cookie name Duration
outbrain_cid_fetch 5 minutes
adrl 5 weeks
apnxs 6 weeks
criteo 2 months
obuid 6 months

Twitter

Twitter conversion tracking enables us to measure our return on ad spend by tracking the actions people take after viewing or engaging with our ads on Twitter.

Cookie name Duration
personalization_id 2 years
muc 2 years
ads_prefs 5 years
auth_token 5 years
dnt 5 years
guest_id 2 years
twid 5 years