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Topic: Panko/tempura issues  (Read 2757 times)

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BigRed

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So I tried a little tempura batter + panko action here at the Chez J last night.  Problem is, my tempura turned out kinda bready and not at all crunchy and delightful.  It was soggy/mushy and freakish.

Question:  is this just a case of not-hot-enough oil?  Or is this an issue of not cooking enough?  Or am I just a loser who should go back to my own (Scottish) ethnic cusine and boil fish instead of trying all this newfangled fancy fooren cookin'?
Joel M
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polepole

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I'm going to guess a combination of tempura being too thick and oil not being hot enough.

I don't think you can be too thin on the tempura.  Sometimes I just dust with flour, dip in egg, then dip in panko.

Oil must be 350.  Don't add too many pieces of fish as it will pull the oil temp down fast.  Use a thermometer.  It helps.

-Allen
« Last Edit: January 04, 2006, 06:47:14 PM by polepole »


jmairey

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don't mix up your tempura batter too much.  that will make it heavy. starts to become dough.

combine that with cool oil and you are toast.

practice with some brocolli and shimp.  those two are the easiest.

john m. airey


Potato_River

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Ahh, tempura!!!

Here's the tip, make sure the batter is as COLD as possible. 
I start with a small s/s bowl thats been in the freezer.  Mix ICE COLD water with the batter mix to get a thin batter.  Place this bowl inside a larger bowl with ice in it to keep your batter as cold as possible.

Tempura is deep fying, not pan frying, so use plenty of oil (so it floats). 

Like other's have said, you can't get the batter too thin and you need to have hot oil.  When the COLD batter hits the hot oil, you will get a light, crunchy outisde coating.

Stuart




polepole

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Ah yes,  how could I forget the COLD batter?  Thanks Stuart!

-Allen


BigRed

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Thanks guys -- I bet my biggest issue was too thick tempura batter.  But I'll keep in mind the cold part.

When I'm cooking something that needs to remain cold (like mousses, etc.) I use a metal bowl on a solid unit of blue ice.  This means the bowl and the contents stay near (but not quite) freezing for as long as I need.  I'll try that with the tempura next time.  Also, I'll use my big wok burner to heat the oil to make sure it's hot enough.  The lovely internet says to aim for middle-hot (around 170-180)

Also, a couple of places say flour stuff up before putting on the batter.  I'll do that, too.  Mmmm.  Time to see what's in the freezer.
« Last Edit: January 05, 2006, 04:40:22 PM by BigRed »
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polepole

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170-180 is certainly not hot enough.

Careful with flouring up if you are going to use tempura batter.  The flour will thicken the batter again.  Better just to use paper towels to dry the fish before dipping in tempura.  You don' t want them wet as this can cause the batter to not stick to the fish correctly.

-Allen


jmairey

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yeah cold is good, being ghetto as usual, I just toss a couple ice cubes into the batter itself,
they are in the measuring cup with the water and I just pour it in.

stuarts tip of nested bowls is surely better!

as for heat, the standard stove top burner (non industrial blaster) on a wok with an inch or so of oil is just barely
hot enough, even full blast. As for when to start, hold your hand 1 inch above oil surface (carefully!)
if you need to pull youf hand away, it's ready to go. again, an oil thermometer would be so much better.

john m. airey


MolBasser

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190?  What site are you reading?  :smt011

Oil has to be 350-370.  Almost smoking.

MolBasser
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vanim

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I believe the 170-180 range would be in celsius.  180 C = 356 F

vanim



fuzz

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yeah cold is good, being ghetto as usual, I just toss a couple ice cubes into the batter itself,
they are in the measuring cup with the water and I just pour it in.

stuarts tip of nested bowls is surely better!

as for heat, the standard stove top burner (non industrial blaster) on a wok with an inch or so of oil is just barely
hot enough, even full blast. As for when to start, hold your hand 1 inch above oil surface (carefully!)
if you need to pull youf hand away, it's ready to go. again, an oil thermometer would be so much better.

:chef:

Having cooked for Japanese restaurants, my cousin & I always get assigned tempura duty for family events.  I agree about heat on standard burners often not being hot enough.  Not so sure about the hand test for temperature though...

We use the traditional way of checking oil temp.  Flick a couple drops of batter in the oil.  You can tell when it's just right by how quickly the batter rises to the surface: 
Not hot enough... the batter will just sink to the bottom. 
Close to hot enough... the batter will sink to the bottom, then slowly rise. 
Just right...  the batter will only drop about halfway down before rising to the surface.

There are a couple other nuances we do, but the keys have been discussed here:  HOT oil, COLD relatively thin batter & small batches.  Also, don't forget to scoop out the floating pieces between batches.  May not seem like it, but it'll affect the temperature.

Itadakimasu!  :D


jmairey

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the batter test sounds pretty good!

I got the hand thing from anton brown, (I think) but he also uses an oil thermometer.

One thing I have found is that humans are pretty good at correlation, so if every time you
do the batter test you put your hand about an inch from the oil, eventually you'll just be
able to put your hand there.

The standard GE stove burner can get the oil hot enough, it just takes a long time.
I guess oil can really absorb some heat, but then it holds it pretty well too.
john m. airey


MolBasser

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I believe the 170-180 range would be in celsius.  180 C = 356 F

vanim



Ah, how did that get past my metric science mind?

Thanks.

MolBasser
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