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Do you remember when rock shrimp was as en-vogue as Harrods clothing or coked-up models? I do. It swept the planet like a plague of boy bands – you couldn’t avoid it. I remember when I was asked to smuggle two large suitcases of frozen rock shrimp into Mykonos so they could feel the fashion. (Well, that was the ‘naughties’ and sustainability, MSC accreditation and shrimp-miles hadn’t quite become as trendy as they needed to be.)
To be honest, I used to scoff my fair share of rock shrimp tempura, moreish little buggers they are. But something very similar can be created with similar small, plump shrimps, which are far more plentiful, as well as affordable. Here’s my nod to that superstar of a dish.
SERVES 2 AS PART OF A MULTI-COURSE MENU
Little shrimp tempura ingredients
- 1 litre rapeseed oil, for deep-frying
- 120g small plump prawns, shells removed and deveined
- 15g tempura flour, for coating
- 70ml ice-cold trisol batter (see page 251)
- salt
To serve
- 10g harusame noodles
- 30g kimchi pickle (see page 246)
- 25ml kimchi mayo (see page 246)
- ¼ small red onion, thinly sliced, rinsed and drained well
- 1 teaspoon chopped chives
- 10 slices green chilli
Method
- Heat the oil in a fryer or large pan to 180°C/350°F. Add the noodles and deep-fry for a few seconds, until crisp and nicely puffed. Remove with a perforated scoop and drain on a plate lined with kitchen paper.
- Mix about 10 per cent salt to water (around 30g salt to 300ml water) and wash the prawns in the salty water. Drain well.
- If you’ve let it cool down, crank the oil in a fryer or large pan back to 180°C/350°F, and toss the prawns in the tempura flour, shaking to coat well. Place the prawns in a colander and shake off the excess flour.
- Next, drop the prawns into the ice-cold batter, one by one, and, by hand, coat each in the batter. Working quickly, drop the prawns individually into the hot oil, spacing them well apart. Cook for about 2ó minutes until nice and golden (traditionally tempura is much paler but this batter won’t work if we try to cook it less to try and achieve the pale colour – besides, these little nuggets will be crunchier than the pale stuff). Remove the prawns with a perforated scoop and allow to drain well in a colander.
- Arrange your crunchy harusame noodles on a suitable plate – I use a shallow bowl so they don’t slide around when being rushed from the kitchen to the table. Dot kimchi over the plate, top with the crunchy prawns, drizzle with the kimchi mayo (best done using a squeezy bottle with a thin nozzle), then scatter with the red onion, chives and chilli slices.
Eat quickly and be merry!
Recipe taken from Junk Food Japan by Scott Hallsworth, publishing by Absolute Press, £26. Photography © David Loftus
If Scott’s Japanese salad recipe left you hungry for Japan, how about a 13-night Gastronomic Adventure in Japan? Roll your own sushi in Kyoto, dine at an izakaya, and find Scott-style Japanese junk food in Osaka.
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