Fall Kakiage Ikura Don (Shredded Vegetable Tempura and Salted Salmon Roe Over Rice)
Fall is here and with it comes sweet and crisp vegetables and a huge bumper crop of my shiso! What better way to showcase seasonal cool crop veggies and herald the arrival of the Autumn salmon than kakiage ikura don?
Kaki-age is a type of tempura made by mixing up ingredients in batter and then frying them—it can include shredded vegetables and seafood (like shrimp, crab, or scallop), although in general I usually only use vegetables for this. This is mostly out of habit since my mom never made kakiage with anything but veggies, but I imagine shrimp and shredded kani would be delicious additions.
I have included a long list of things you could use as ingredients, but in my particular case I used what I had on hand: delicious and starchy sweet potato, cool crisp cabbage, earthy potato, eye catching carrot, fragrant shiso, and some tasty onion.
If you get your hands on fresh salmon roe, you can make ikura feel free to pile it high since ‘tis the season for fat sacs of sujiko to make their way to specialty Asian markets. But if you can’t find any, or if you’re vegetarian, leaving it out is fine too! You can also have this with soba, ramen, and udon!
I make my batter slightly thin because I want just a crisp barely there outer shell so it doesn’t mask the flavor of the vegetables. You can also purchase tempura batter mix. As far as sauce goes… well there’s quite a few choices and I’ve included my favorites.
Vegetable Options
- Cabbage
- Potato
- Sweet potato
- Burdock root
- Shiso
- Asparagus
- Fiddlehead fern
- Green onion
- Yellow onion
- Purple yam
- Napa cabbage
- Broccoli
- Cauliflower
- Carrots
- Parsnips
- String beans
- Peppers
- Apple
- Zucchini
- Pumpkin (Kobacha or other sweet pumpkin)
- Butternut Squash
- Bamboo Shoots
- Hosta shoots/Flowers
- Chayote Shoots
Recipe
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon corn starch
- 2/3rds cup ice water
- 3-4 types of shredded vegetables (ideas for choices above), equal parts of each to add up to 2 cups
- Enough vegetable oil for deep frying or to cover the bottom 3 inches of the pan
- Hot cooked white Rice
- 1 tablespoon Ikura/Salted Salmon Caviar
- Shredded toasted nori, for garnish
- Tonkatsu sauce (optional)
- Kewpie Mayo (optional)
- Tempura dipping sauce/Tentsuyu (Or make your own: 1 teaspoon sugar, 1 tablespoon sake, 1 teaspoon mirin, 2 tablespoons dashi stock, 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 1/4 teaspoon minced ginger, heated until sugar has dissolved.)
- Grated Daikon Radish (optional, for tentsuyu)
- Lemon wedge, for garnish
- Shred the vegetables you chose thinly and uniformly so they all cook evenly and at the same time.
- Combine the water, flour, and corn starch together. Mix with the shredded vegetables.
- In a deep pan over medium high heat, fry heaping tablespoon dollops of the vegetable and batter mixture until crispy and golden. You know the oil is ready when you drop a little batter in and small bubbles sizzle all around it.
- Pile on rice, with ikura if using, and top with garnishes of your choice. Serve with sauces of your choice as well.