Tempura - Super light and crispy tempura. (vegan)

Using Methylcellulose in this tempura batter helps to create an incredibly light, crispy batter inside which the vegetables essentially steam whilst they’re cooked. It helps to keep moisture in the coated ingredients and also reduces the about of oil absorbed through the batter.

As well as using methylcellulose here I’ve also replaced some of the water in the batter mixture with vodka, which boils out very quickly during frying, giving you a fantastically crunchy, crisp texture.

Finally I also carbonate my tempura batter in a cream whipper to help get a beautifully light batter.

350g Vodka
450g Water
250g Plain Flour (or Rice Flour)
Pinch salt
Pinch chilli powder
8g Methylcellulose
Plus your choice of ingredients to batter – ie shitake mushrooms, broccoli, baby corn, carrot batons, strips of peppers etc.

Blend the methylcellulose into 250g of the water using a hand blender.

Next whisk the vodka into the flour (seasoned with a pinch of salt and chilli powder).

Now add the methylcellulose mixture into the flour and finally whisk in the remaining 200g of water.

Whisk the batter until smooth then pour it through a sieve.

Take 500ml of the tempura batter and pour it into a cream whipper then charge this with two Co2 chargers (soda chargers).

Give the whipper a good shake and place it in the fridge to chill of around two hours or until your ready to it.

When your ready to make your tempura invert the cream whipper and dispense the batter into a large mixing bowl.

Dip your ingredients to be fried into a little flour then into the batter before gently placing them in a deep fat fryer (at 190C). Only fry a few tempuras at a time.

The tempura will cook very quickly (less than two minutes), take them out of the fryer when they are crisp and crunchy and serve up with a dipping sauce or with as part of a larger dish.

Read my Methylcellulose Introduction here

Go to my Molecular Basics Section

Methylcellulose is Available from

www.Modernist-Chef.com

Umami Rich Shitake Mushroom and Noodle Broth

Umami Rich Shitake Mushroom and Noodle Broth (Serves two as a main course).

This Japanese inspired dish is really rich in Umami (the fifth taste) and makes a beautiful main course with incredible flavour. For more information on Umami check out my blog on the subject.

Ingredients-
50g Dried sliced Shitake Mushrooms
2 Cloves of garlic chopped
3 Shallots diced
1 red chilli - roughly chopped
1 thumb sized piece ginger – cut into matchsticks
3 tablespoons Toasted Sesame oil
4 tablespoons Dark soy sauce
2 tablespoons Lemon juice
2 teaspoons ‘Ume plum seasoning’ (or if you can’t get this use a little rice wine vinegar)
1 tablespoon Vegetable stock
Fresh coriander
One-bunch spring onions
2 servings of Noodles – either use fresh egg noodles or cook some dried noodles and set to one side.
Optional - One Piece dried Kombu. It will add an extra umami boost, but it will also give a suble seaweed flavour to the dish aswell.

First off for this dish put the dried shitake’s (along with the Kombu if using) in a bowl and cover with 1 litre of boiling water, let them soak and rehydrate for at least an hour. It’s really important that you remember to keep the water that you soaked the mushrooms in, as this will be the base for our Umami rich broth.

Heat the sesame oil in a pan or wok and stir-fry the ginger, shallots and chilli for about a minuit, then toss in the garlic and fry for another minuit. Roughly chop the shitake mushrooms and throw them into the pan to cook for two minuits.

Now pour the liquid you rehydrated the mushrooms in (a simple ‘Dashi’), over all the ingredients in the pan and bring the liquid to a simmer (if using kombu simmer the soaked piece of kombu in the liquid aswell) . Next in goes the soy sauce, veg stock, ume plum seasoning, lemon juice and just a very small pinch of salt and pepper. Check the seasoning, adding soy rather than salt if you desire it to be saltier, and lemon juice if you want more acidity.

Next pop you noodles into the broth (cooked them separately first if using dried noodles) and simmer for another minuit. Finally chop a few sprigs of fresh coriander and a bunch of spring onions and pop them in for the last minuit or so of cooking. Serve it up in some nice bowls with chopsticks, and garnish with fresh coriander, spring onion curls and a sprinkle of black sesame seeds (remove the kombu, if using, before serving).

Chilli, cumin seed and fenugreek flat bread
Makes about 12.

7g dried active yeast
375ml warm water
Pinch Sugar
600g plain flour
1 tablespoon salt
olive oil
2 tablespoons chilli flakes
3 tablespoons dried fenugreek leaves
1 tablespoon cumin seeds
150g melted butter
5 garlic cloved
pinch cracked black pepper
Chopped fresh corrianda


First make the garlic butter by mixing finely chopped garlic with the melted butter and seasoning with pepper, set this to one side. If you want you could make clarified butter (ghee) at this point but a simple garlic butter is fine for us at the mo.
Now activate the yeast in the warm water and sugar. (Leave it for around 10 mins to become frothy).
Add this to a bowl filled with the flour, salt, olive oil and the spices.
Kneed together into a dough. Its worth really kneeding it well, for about ten minuets, so get right into it and enjoy it, or bang it in a mixer and have a beer.
Place the dough in a covered bowl in a warm place to rise for around an hour and a half after which it should be about twise the size.
Knock the dough back to its origional size and divide it into 8 pieces.
Roll out the breads to 5mm thickness. Brush with a little oil and cook, oiled side down on a hot griddle pan for a minuit on each side until bubbles appear in the bread.
Spread with the garlic butter mix, sprinkle with chopped fresh corrianda and serve.

Cinnamon and vanilla Bavarois with Dark chocolate Kahlua Ganache and coffee tuile.
Cinnamon and Kahlua Bavarois
Makes 4 individual puddings or one 13cm cake tin.
 
Base –
100g digestive biscuits
50g Melted butter
One tablespoon golden syrup
 
First make a simple biscuit base for the desert by mixing together 100g of digestive biscuits, which have been broken down to the consistency of fine bread crumbs, with 50g of melted butter and a table spoon of golden syrup. Press this mix into the bottom of the molds you are using or line the base of a cake tin with it.
 
Bavarois –
65g Caster sugar
Two tea spoons ground Cinnamon
6g agar agar
2 free range egg yolks
250ml whole milk
One vanilla pod
250ml double cream lightly whipped
 
Mix the agar agar into the milk and allow to soak for 5-10 minuits.
Mix two free range egg yolks and 50g of caster sugar in a bowl.
Heat the milk, agar agar and the seeds of one vanilla pod in a pan to just below boiling point. Keep stiring the mixture till the agar agar is completely dissolved.
Make a syrup from 15g caster sugar two tea spoons of cinnamon and one table spoons of water and add this to the milk. Continue to stir on the heat for a further 2-3 minuits. Pour the liquid over the egg and sugar mix and stir in bit by bit.
As soon as the mixture shows the early signs of setting swiftly fold in the lightly whipped double cream. Stir to insure that the mixture has a smooth consitency.
Quickly pour the mix into your molds or cake tin, this must be done quickly as the Bavarois will begin to set as soon as it starts to cool.
Allow to set in the fridge and once set top with the chocolate and kahlua ganache and refrigerate once again until the topping is also set.
 
For the Chocolate and Kahlua Ganache topping-
150g good quality (70% cocoa solids) vegetarian dark chocolate.
50ml single gream
One tablespoon golden syrup
50ml Kahlua
 
Melt 150g of good quality dark chocolate with 50ml single cream a table spoon of golden syrup and 50ml of Kahlua, in a bowl over a pan of water just below boiling point, stirring until smooth.
 
Once desserts are set remove the molds or cake tin and serve cold.

For the coffee tuile –
60g butter
60g plain flour
60g icing sugar
one large free range egg white
2 teaspoons instant coffee
drop vanilla essence
pinch ground cinnamon

Melt butter and stir in coffee to dissolve. Mix the flour, sugar, egg white, cinnamon and vanilla essence together. Then mix in the butter coffee mix to make a pale brown/beige paste. Pop this mixture in the fridge for one hour. Then spread the mixture to about a millimetre thick on a non stick baking sheet or baking papper. Place in the oven at 200 centigrade for 5 minuits. The buiscuits can then be cut to shape whilst still a tiny bit pliable and left to cool and crisp up.
Serve with a quenelles of the set kahlua ganache coated in cocoa powder, fresh strawberries and coffee tuile.

Baileys and chipped dark chocolate parfait

Ingredients-
50g good quality dark chocolate
150g caster sugar
3 free range egg yolks
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
300 ml double cream
2 shots of Baileys

First whip the cream to soft peaks and set to one side. Then in a non-stick pan make a syrup by melting the sugar with a table spoon and a half of water, allow this to simmer for about two minuets until the you have a smooth syrup. Whisk the egg yolks until fluffy and pale then add the syrup to the yolks whilst continuing to whisk for a further couple of minuets to a smooth, thick mixture.
Chop or smash the chocolate in small uneven pieces. At this point one by one fold the Baileys, vanilla extract and chipped chocolate into the egg mix. Finally fold in the whipped cream and spoon the parfait into individual molds or ramekins and freeze ideally over night but for at least four hours.
Turn the parfaits out of their molds and onto a plate, the alcohol in the Baileys should have prevented them from being absolutely frozen solid. These look great simply garnished with a dusting of icing sugar, some grated chocolate and some quartered strawberries to add colour and contrast. Parfait is similar to ice cream and is a lovely indulgent and classy way to end a dinner, while at the same time being easy to make up in advance.

Mushroom Laksa
(could be vegan if you use egg free noodles)

Ingredients –
4 cloves of Garlic
3 or 4 red chilies
40g fresh ginger
One red pepper skinned and de-seeded
200g free range egg noodles
900ml prepared Vegetable stock
3 Cans of coconut milk
400g closed cap mushrooms
250g portabella mushrooms
A handful of fresh coriander
Lime and soy sauce to taste
chopped sping onions to garnish

Finely chop or blend the garlic, lemon grass, red pepper, ginger and chilies (including their seeds), fry these for one to two minuets. Then add the coconut milk and stock and bring to the boil. Quarter the closed cap mushrooms and slice the portabella and add them to the pan along with a handful of roughly chopped fresh coriander, season with salt, pepper, soy sauce and lime juice to taste, leave to simmer for around 15 minuits.
Whilst the Laksa is simmering bring some water to the boil and cook the noodles. To serve first put some noodles in each large bowl, then ladle out the Laksa and top. Garnish with fresh coriander. This is a great dish in any season and can be made as spicy or mild as you like. Its real comfort food but works great presented as a gourmet main course. You can experiment with adding a variety of deferent veg to this versatile and hearty meal.

Spiced plum and strawberry crumble, dusted with cinamon with a dark chocolate and ginger sauce.

Crumble -
240g Golden granulated sugar
75g Butter
175g Plain flour
30g Pecan nuts (roughly chopped)
2 tea spoons of chilli powder
2 tea spoons of ground cinnamon
8 fresh ripe plums
500g fresh ripe strawberries

Dark Chocolate and ginger sauce –
Thumb sized piece of root ginger
100ml single cream
175g Organic dark chocolate (60% cocoa solids)
1 or 2 tea spoons of honey
3 tabs butter
Crumbles cook in 25 minuits

Chop the plums (skin on), into 3cm chunks, remove the stalks from the strawberries and halve them through the centre. Stew the fruit in a 50ml of orange juice with 180g sugar and 2 tea spoons of chilli powder, a pinch of ground ginger for approx five minuets until softened. For the crumble topping, rub 75g butter (diced), into 175g flour. Mix in about 80g of sugar and the roughly chopped pecan nuts and 2 teaspoons cinamon.
Spoon the stewed fruit equally into four ramekins, top with the crumble and dust with a little cinnamon.
Bake at 180C for approximately 25 minutes until the topping is golden.
For the chocolate sauce, - melt 175g of choc with a 2/3 flat tabs of butter and a thumb of grated ginger squeezed in muslin to get juice into sause in glass/metal bowl over boiling water, add honey to taste,
Once ready take off heat and then very quickly stir in 75ml/100ml cream.

Chocolate gnocchi and spiced red wine poached pear with 'blacksticks' blue cheese sauce and walnuts.

I haven’t finished this recipe to my satisfaction yet but my girlfriend loves it so here is a working version of it. Feel free to play with it and adjust the strength of the flavours to your own taste but make sure the blue cheese you use is vegetarian (doesn’t use calf rennet).
I came up with this recipe with Christmassy, winter, festive ideas in mind.
It might sound like a bizar concoction but honestly these flavours all really go together and compliment each other beautifully – blue cheese and pear, chocolate and blue cheese, red wine and chocolate, walnuts and pears, blue cheese and walnuts, chocolate and nuts, these are all tried and true lovely pairings, this dish combines then into an intense savory main course. Also if chocolate in a savory dish sounds odd to you its actually nothing like a new idea, its been used in savory dishes in many cultures for hundreds of years.
In this dish the bitterness of chocolate gnocchi is contrasted and contained by the sweetness of the poached pear, the blue cheese sauce unites these contrasting tastes. Creaminess and crisp walnuts provide the scenery in which the other, each intense, flavour can stand out without overpowering the others. So when all the flavours come together there is a harmony.
You only need small servings of this dish, it is very intense flavour wise and the gnocchi are very dense and filling for how small they are.

For the gnocchi
400g peeled and mashed floury potatoes
400g plain flour
50g cocoa powder
Salt and pepper
One free-range egg
Pinch sugar

Sieve the flour and cocoa into the mashed potato, mix together well until you have the consistency of fine breadcrumbs. Season with salt pepper and a pinch of sugar, just enough to take the edge off the bitterness of the cocoa. Break an egg into the centre of the mix and work into the flour and potato. When the mix comes together kneed it and then roll out into long sausages about 2cm thick. Dust these with flour and then cut at 1.5 cm intervals all along the dough. Place the gnocchi into salted boiling water. Cook until they pop up to the surface of the boiling water, at this point they are ready, scoop out the cooked gnocchi with a slotted spoon and immediately refresh by dropping into cold water to halt the cooking process. Drain and toss the gnocchi in a little olive oil. These can now be set aside until ready to use.

Blue cheese sauce
75g Vegetarian Blacksticks blue veined cheese
150ml single cream
Tablespoon butter
25ml whole milk
Seasoning (not to much salt)

I’ve used ‘Blacksticks’ blue veined cheese here but you can substitute any vegetarian blue cheese to taste. This is a quick simple sauce. Just heat up the milk, butter and cream then add the cheese and melt it in, stirring until the sauce begins to thicken. Season with pepper and a little salt.

Poached pears
Red wine (check its suitable for vegetarians)
Peeled and halved pears
Teaspoon chilli powder
Pepper

Place the peeled halved pears, place in a pan and cover with red wine, add some pepper and the chilli to red wine and bring to the boil for 5 – 10 minuits until the pears are soft all the way through.

Bringing it together and serving
Place the cooked gnocchi in a pan with a little olive oil and bring up the heat so they crisp, just a little on the outside, pour over the sauce and heat through. When the gnocchi and sauce are heated through toss in a handful of walnuts. Transfer to a plate and sit the poached pear halves on the gnocchi in the centre of the plate.

Orange and herbed goats cheese crostini

200ml Balsamic vinegar
400g soft goats cheese
One bunch fresh chives
25g Fresh Basil
2 Oranges
1 Lemon
1 Baguette
Seasonal salad leaves

First make a balsamic reduction by heating the balsamic vinegar in a saucepan and letting it simmer and reduce to one quarter of the original liquid until it has a syrupy texture. Next mix the goats cheese in a bowl with the finely chopped chives and a couple of basil leaves cut into fine strips, season with pepper.
Peel and split the oranges into segments (cut between membranes above a bowl to collect the juices) add a dash of lemon juice to the reserved juice from the oranges along with a good slush of olive oil, whisk together and season to form a dressing. Lightly toast slices of baguette and set aside. Now on each piece of bread arrange a few of the orange segments and drizzle them with a small amount of the dressing, next spoon on some of the herbed goats cheese and pop the crostini under the grill for a minuit or so until the goats cheese begins to melt and colour on top. Place your crostini on plates with a small salad of seasonal leaves tossed in the dressing made earlier. Finally give each crostini a good drizzle of the balsamic reduction and serve.
The sweetness of the balsamic reduction really compliments the tartness of the goat’s cheese, whilst the oranges and lemon add acidity which gives this starter freshness and zing
to it.

Wasabi ‘Mayonnaise’ (Vegan)

This dip is the perfect accompaniment for my tempura recipe. It can also be easily adapted to make a plain mayonnaise, herb mayonnaise, Aioli etc by simply removing the wasabi and adding appropriate flavourings of your choosing.

85 ml Soymilk
300ml Vegetable Oil
One Teaspoon Mustard
Juice One Lemon
1 Tablespoons Rice Wine Vinegar
4 Teaspoons Wasbai Paste
1 Clove Garlic

In a food processor blend the garlic, mustard, lemon juice, wasabi and vinegar for one minute.

Now add the soymilk into the food processor and blend for another minute.

Next slowly drizzle the oil into the soymilk mixture whilst blending.

As you pour in the oil into the mixture whilst blending it should gradually emulsify and thicken. Continue drizzling in the oil until the desired mayonnaise texture is reached. Add seasoning to taste (bending it in to combine).

Garnish with sliced chilli and finely sliced spring onion.