Tempura Hosta Shoots
It’s spring and my hostas are starting to come up. This means hosta shoots galore. With a flavor and texture like artichokes, they are absolutely delicious as tempura, which is what I made today for lunch. You might feel weird eating something you’d thought of as an ornamental plant for so long, but the Japanese have long known it as a wonderful spring sansai (mountain vegetable.)
Ingredients for Tempura Donburi
- 1 egg
- 1 cup iced water
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup panko breading
- 1/2 cup corn starch
- 12 – 15 hosta shoots
- Enough vegetable oil to cover 2 inches of the bottom of the pot
- Bowl of hot rice
- Tentsuyu (3:1:1 Dashi Stock:Soy sauce:Sake)
- Lemon wedge
- Grated Daikon (pureed radish can be used in place)
1. Heat pot of oil over medium high heat, until the oil sizzles when you drop in a few pieces of panko. Do not allow to smoke. It should just sizzle and bubble around the batter (and there should be lots of bubble but they should be tiny–if the bubbles are big, your heat is too high), taking some time to reach the golden colored stage–you don’t want the outside to burn before the inside is done.
2. In a bowl, gently beat egg, water, and flour until combined into a thin batter.
3. Coat vegetables in thin dusting of corn starch, then dip in batter, dredge in panko breading. Fry in oil until golden, flipping gently if necessary, and drain on paper towel.
4. Mix tentsuyu with grated daikon. Arrange tempura on top of rice, pour tentsuyu radish mixture over the tempura. Serve while hot and crispy.