Tempura Donburi Rice Bowls Recipes

TEMPURA DONBURI (RICE BOWLS)

Steps:

• First, prepare the dipping sauce by combining dashi stock, soy sauce, and mirin. We used instant dashi, but if you want to make it yourself, we have detailed instructions in our Miso Soup recipe. At this point, you can also cook the rice you'll serve with the tempura.
• Next, prepare the vegetables, making sure everything is washed and trimmed. Nothing should be too wet ahead of frying, so if needed, pat the vegetables with a kitchen towel or let them sit at room temperature to dry off while you prep everything else.
• Score the shrimp with a sharp knife so that they can lay flat (you can do this lightly if you don't mind them retaining some of their curved shape). Refrigerate the shrimp until you're ready to fry.
• Next, make the batter. Stir together the ice water, cake flour, and egg yolks. No need to get rid of all the lumps-in fact, take care not to overmix it. Pop it in the refrigerator while you heat the frying oil.
• In a small deep pot, heat enough oil to fill it about halfway, over medium-high heat. While that's happening, set up a wire rack over a sheet pan or a platter lined with paper towels. When a drop of the batter sizzles vigorously but doesn't brown too quickly, you're ready to go.
• To fry, swirl one piece of vegetable or shrimp in the batter (for the shrimp, hold it by the tail), and lower it gently into the batter. Fry everything in batches of 3-4 items for 45-90 seconds, turning each item 3-4 times. When the vegetables are lightly golden and the shrimp are lightly golden, orange, and floating, it's ready to be transferred to the wire rack.
• Adjust the heat as needed between batches as you add cold food to the oil. The oil should be hot enough that it doesn't take too long to cook the tempura, but not so hot that the food immediately turns golden when it hits the oil.
• To assemble the tempura donburi bowls, spoon a base of steamed rice into each bowl. Top with with vegetables and a few shrimp per bowl. Serve with the dipping sauce, grated daikon (optional), and perhaps a bowl of miso soup!

TEMPURA DONBURI - TENDON - TEMPURA RICE BOWL

Steps:

• Remove shell from shrimp and devein, leaving tails. Cut off the tip of tails. Score underside (stomach side) of shrimp using a knife at several places to flatten. Use your fingers to flatten out completely after scoring.
• Trim stems from shitake mushrooms and shiso leaves.
• Remove skin from onion, and cut into 1/4 inch rings (like onion rings).
• Place tempura sauce ingredients in a pan and bring to a boil and simmer 2-3 minutes. Keep warm.
• For batter, combine egg and ice water in a bowl, add flour combined with cornstarch and mix very lightly. Place two ice cubes in the mixture to keep it cool and to improve the batter texture. Do not over mix.
• Preheat oil to 350 degrees F. Dust shrimps and vegetable pieces with extra flour for dusting, then coat with tempura batter and deep fry. Fry few pieces at a time to keep the oil temperature constant.
• Tempura pieces are done when they are lightly colored and crisp looking. Do not over cook.
• Place approximately 1 1/2 C cooked rice each into 4 bowls and place tempura pieces evenly onto hot rice and sprinkle some sauce over the rice tempura bowl.

BEEF DONBURI CALIFORNIA STYLE - BEEF RICE BOWL

Steps:

• Cut beef into very thin bite size pieces. Cut onion into about 8 wedges.
• Heat vegetable oil in a frying pan and saute onion until transparent. Add beef and saute 2 minutes. Add sugar, soy sauce, mirin, white and red wine, sake, salt and water.
• When the liquid comes to a boil, reduce heat and cook while removing scum that floats up. Cook until the liquid is reduced by half.
• Put cooked rice into individual bowls (about 1 1/2 - 2 1/2 C depending on your appetite) and top with beef mixture along with sauce from the pan evenly. Top with pickled red ginger and shichimi togarashi or shichimi pepper.