Tempura prawns are great for parties as they are easy to eat and absolutely delicious. You can also use vegetables instead of the prawns for vegetarians or anyone with shellfish allergies (just make sure you coat and cook the vegetables first).
Makes 12
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- 12 large tiger prawns, peeled and deveined
- 200g plain flour
- 60g cornflour
- 400ml sparkling water
- 6 ice cubes
- Pinch of salt
- 0.25 tsp ground turmeric
1. “Break” the prawns’ backs by placing the two ends on a chopping board with the back pointing upwards. Force it flat against the chopping board until it splits slightly.
2. Turn your fryer to 180C. If you are using a pan of oil, sprinkle a couple of breadcrumbs on to it, if they fizzle immediately your oil is hot enough.
3. Place the flour, cornflour, salt, turmeric and ice cubes in a food processor and blitz, pouring the sparkling water in until you have a pancake batter consistency.
4. Roll the prawns in a little extra flour and dip them in the batter and straight into your hot oil, cook for no more than 1.5 minutes and remove onto a piece of kitchen towel to dry off any excess oil. Serve immediately with dips.
TIP: If you are serving larger quantities and want to serve them almost at the same time, turn your oil up to 190C and cook for 50 seconds, remove, drain and set aside whilst you do the rest (do not refrigerate) When you’re ready to serve, set the oil to 180C and cook them for a further 50 seconds.
These tempura prawns are great served with dips such as alioli or a sweet chilli dip, which will also work well with other party nibbles too…
For the Alioli
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- 200ml mayonnaise
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 2 cloves of garlic, puréed
- Salt to taste
- Chopped parsley
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- Combine all the ingredients well in a bowl and dip away!
For the Sweet Chilli Dip
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- 6 large tomatoes, grated
- 6 tbsp caster sugar
- Half a bunch coriander stalks
- 150ml white wine vinegar
- 2 hot red chillies, chopped
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- Combine all of the ingredients in a saucepan, bring to the boil, turn down the heat and let it simmer until it thickens to a light syrup consistency.
- Remove the coriander stalks and allow to cool. It will thicken whilst cooling.