Fruit tempura with salted caramel dipping sauce

Photo: Ryan Bartley

This classic Japanese recipe is traditionally savoury. I have transformed it from a starter into an interesting dessert and teamed it with a salted caramel sauce.

INGREDIENTS

250ml ice-cold sparkling water
½ egg, beaten
100g plain flour plus extra for coating
50g cornflour
½ tsp baking powder
1 apple, cored and sliced
1 pear, cored and sliced
1 banana, peeled and sliced at an angle
Icing sugar, to serve
Vegetable oil, for frying

For the sauce:

100g granulated sugar
25ml water
100g unsalted butter
100ml double cream
5ml soy sauce
1 tsp good quality salt

Method

To make the tempura batter: mix the egg into the cold water and sift in the flours and baking powder.

Gently mix together with a fork, making sure not to combine too much (this makes the batter chewy when fried). The batter should be thick and lumpy.

Heat the vegetable oil to 180°C and warm your oven on its lowest setting.

Roll the fruit pieces in plain flour and dip one or two pieces at a time in the batter, covering them totally but allowing the excess to drip off.

Carefully lower into the hot oil and fry for 3-4 minutes, until crisp and lightly golden.

Drain on kitchen paper and keep warm in the oven before serving. Repeat until all the fruit has been fried.

Serve with a dusting of icing sugar and salted caramel sauce for dipping.

To make the caramel: dissolve the sugar in the water in a heavy-bottomed pan over a medium heat. Do not stir.

When the sugar has dissolved turn up the heat and boil until a brown-mahogany colour. Immediately remove from the heat and whisk in the butter.

Add the cream and continue to whisk. The sauce will be a golden colour and thin — it thickens as it cools. Stir in the soy sauce and salt.

Cool before serving.

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