Tapas/Starters

Oyster in Tempura Batter served with 2 Dipping Sauces

Ingredients:

-         12  NZ pacific oyster, shucked

-         4 or more tablespoon corn flour for dusting

-         Rice Bran oil for deep frying

Batter:

-         250ml of ice cold water

-         120grammes self raising flour

-         30grammes of Corn flour

-         1 egg yolk, beaten

Dipping sauces:

1.      Garlic mayonnaise:-

-         ½ teaspoon finely minced garlic

-         ½ teaspoon finely minced shallot

-         ½ tablespoon lemon juice

-         ¼ teaspoon caster sugar

-         1 tablespoon mayonnaise

2.      Soy and Mirin sauce:-

-         ½ tablespoon light soy sauce

-         ½ tablespoon hon mirin

-         ½ tablespoon lemon juice

-         ½ tablespoon water

-         ¼ teaspoon finely grated turnip

-         ¼ teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger root

Method:

1.      Prepare the batter by mixing the corn flour with the self raising flour. Add the flour and the beaten egg yolk into the ice cold water (do not add the water to the flour) and slightly whisk them together. Do not mix them too well, make sure the batter is in a consistency similar to double cream but with lots of air bubbles and small lumps of flour in the mixture. Put the batter into the fridge for at least 30 minutes before you use.

2.      Rinse off the slimy bits of the oysters and dry them thoroughly with paper towels.

3.      While waiting for the batter to set and the oyster to further dry, prepare the dipping sauces. Mix all the ingredients of the garlic mayonnaise and let it stand for at least 10 minutes.  Mix all ingredients except the grated turnip and ginger of the soy and mirin dip. Set them aside

4.      When the batter is set, spread the 4 tablespoon of corn flour on a tray and dust the oyster in the cornflour. Heat up a saucepan or wok or deepfryer to 180C/ 350F with enough cooking oil for deep frying.

5.      When the oil is hot enough, dip the dusted oyster one at a time into the batter with a pair of tongs and transfer it into the hot oil, deep fry only 6 oysters at one time.

6.      When the batter is just turning colour, remove the oysters from the oil and rest them on a wire rack to drain the oil and to slightly cool down, deep fry the other six oysters same as the first batch.

7.      When the second batch of oysters starting to turn colour, remove the oysters from the oil as the first batch.  Now, return the 1^st batch to the cooking oil and deep fry for another minute or 2 till they turn more golden, remove them from the oil and drain off excess oil.  Repeat the same to the 2^nd batch of oyster.

8.      Serve the oysters with the 2 dipping sauces. The grated turnip and ginger could be put into the soy and mirin sauce just before serving or serve them separately in a small saucer.

Hint:

-         The air bubbles and the small lumps of flour in the batter help the tempura to become crispier. You can replace the ice cold water with ice cold soda water to introduce more air into the batter mixture. It is the same idea as beer batter.

-         Make sure you add the flour to the water, not the other way round.

-         Make sure the oil is hot enough when deep frying the oysters, put a drop of batter into the hot cooking oil to check if the oil is ready for frying.

-         Do not deep fry more than 6 oysters at one time, this is to make sure the temperature of the oil will not drop significantly and the oysters will not stick together.

-         Frying the oysters twice will make the batter crispier and crunchier.

-         After mixing the garlic, shallot and other ingredients with the mayonnaise, leave it for 10 minutes to let the garlic infuse into the mayonnaise before serving.  

-         The grated turnip is supposed to balance the “heat’ from the deep fried food, helps digestion and fat burning.