Tempura Batter Recipe

Tempura batter is a Japanese batter for frying just about anything. Vegetables, meat, shrimp, even sushi—nothing escapes the glory of tempura. It’s one of Japan’s most popular styles of food.

Basic tempura batter can be made with wheat flour, rice flour, or a combination of both, along with salt, baking powder, and water.

It is lighter than Western fritter batter but denser than many Asian batters, and it can be made with ice-cold water depending on the final texture you want. In general, it comes together very quickly; I give you the exact recipe at the end of the article. The batter for shrimp fritters is a good “in-between” example

My cod fritters are a good example of a Western-style fritter batter

The History of Tempura

The Japanese have a remarkable ability to take foreign dishes and adapt them to Japanese tastes, creating something completely new and original. Against all odds, tempura batter is an excellent example of this.

This frying method was introduced in the 1600s by Portuguese missionaries. The original dish has disappeared, but it was a meal intended for Lent, a period when many Christian denominations abstain from eating meat.

In fact, the name tempura comes from the Latin ad tempora cuaresme, which means “in the time of Lent.” The Japanese mistook this for the name of the dish and ended up calling it tempura batter. Oops.

Tempura batter was introduced in and around the city of Nagasaki. At the time, Japan was cut off from the rest of the world. Its only contact was through Portuguese, Dutch, and Chinese traders and missionaries in this port city…

The tempura frying technique was something completely new in Japan. Unlike most countries in the world, Japan had never had a real tradition of frying food.

Even though neighboring China had long had fried dishes, and much of its culinary culture had arrived in Japan centuries earlier, deep-frying had never really taken hold there. 

Death by Tempura

Tempura fried foods quickly became popular snacks served between meals. Tokugawa Ieyasu, Japan’s first shogun, is said to have loved them.

Legend even has it that he died after eating too much tempura. Of course, that’s probably just a legend, but isn’t it a much better way to go than falling in battle? 

Originally, tempura was mainly used for balls made with minced meat, fish, and vegetables, heavily influenced by its Portuguese roots. 

However, around the 18th century, Japanese chefs began experimenting with frying whole fish and vegetables.

That is when tempura batter completed its “Japanization,” because Japanese cuisine places great value on eating fresh foods as close to their natural state as possible. When chefs began frying whole vegetables and fish while preserving their unique flavor and character, tempura became a truly Japanese dish.

It was also at that point that tempura went from being a simple  snack between meals to a full meal in its own right. Source

Tempura Batter Recipe

Another recipe you will almost certainly enjoy is my shrimp tempura