Here’s a Recipe for Traditional Tempting Tempura Dipping Sauce

Tempura sauce is a part of Japanese cuisine. It is often used as a dip for fried sea food dishes, especially shrimp and prawns.

Tempura sauce is also known as tempura dipping sauce or tentsuyu in Japanese. Tempura is actually deep-fried food coated in a light batter. Seafood and root vegetables are generally used for making these dishes. Any tempura dish is incomplete, unless it is paired with a dipping sauce. The taste of the sauce differs on the basis of the seasoning used.

Recipe for Tempura Sauce

This is a basic recipe for this sauce, which can be modified to suit your palate. The ingredients can be subtracted or added, to suit your taste and preferences. This recipe mentions Mirin. It is a Japanese rice wine, which is sweet and has very less alcohol content. The alcohol content can be as low as 1% and sometimes even below that.

Ingredients

• Light and Low Sodium Vegetable Broth, 1 cup
• Mirin (preferable) or Sweet Sherry, ⅓ cup
• Soy Sauce, ⅓ cup
• Horseradish, 1″ 1
• Grated Ginger to taste
• Lemon Juice, 1 tsp.
• MSG, ½ tsp.

Method

• In a saucepan, blend soy sauce, mirin, vegetable broth and MSG over medium – low heat.
• Bring it to a boil and remove from heat.
• Add grated horseradish, ginger, and lemon juice to the sauce, and stir well.
• Serve the sauce with seafood or vegetables.

Vegetarian Recipe

This sauce is used with vegetarian tempura dishes. It also uses Kombu, which is a form of edible seaweed. It is also known as Nara style tempura dip sauce.

Ingredients

• Light Vegetable Stock, 1½ cup
• Kombu, 3 inch piece
• Soy Sauce, 2½ tbsp.
• Mirin, 3 tbsp.
• Peeled and Finely Grated Ginger Root, 1 tsp.
• Grated Daikon Radish, 2 tsp.
• Silvered Green Onions for garnishing

Method

• In a saucepan, simmer vegetable stock and kombu.
• Do not cover the saucepan and let it simmer at low heat.
• Remove kombu from the saucepan and keep it aside.
• Add soy sauce and mirin. Let the sauce simmer over low heat for 1 minute.
• Remove the saucepan from heat and add ginger root, daikon, and silvered green onions. Serve it hot.

Non-Vegetarian Recipe

This recipe makes use of Bonito fish flakes. If you are making seafood tempura, then this is the sauce that will go best with it.

Ingredients

• Water, 1½ cups
• Kombu, 3 inch piece
• Bonito Fish Flakes, 2 tbsp.
• Soy Sauce 2 tbsp.
• Mirin, 2 tbsp.
• Grated Ginger Root, 1 tsp.
• Grated Daikon Radish, 2 tsp.
• Silvered Green Onion for garnishing

Method

• Combine water and kombu in a saucepan and keep it aside for 15 minutes.
• Then bring the water to a gentle simmer over low heat.
• Remove kombu from the saucepan and keep it aside.
• Remove the saucepan from heat and add bonito fish flakes.
• Let the flakes settle in water for 5 minutes.

• Strain the broth and remove flakes.
• Also remember to squeeze the fish flakes well and discard them.
• Now add soy and mirin. Bring the sauce to a gentle simmer over low heat for 2 minutes.
• Remove the saucepan from heat and add grated ginger root, daikon radish, and silvered green onions.

Preparing this sauce is very simple. It is recommended to be served hot and fresh.

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