Tempura Batters

Cold water is the key to making any tempura batter, ~40F.  This keeps the batter from becoming sticky.

When using wheat flour, whisk quickly just to mix it in evenly.  Don't over whisk so not to develop too much gluten in wheat flour based batters.  Sticky batter results in oily tempura.

To cook tempura, make sure all items being fried are dry.  You can dip each item into cornstarch (shake off any excess) before dipping in the batter, this can help to make the batter crisper and keep it on the food being fried. 

I learned from my Japanese friend that the best oil is a mixture of lite peanut oil and lite sesame oil.  You can also use soybean oil in place of peanut.  The mixture should be 70 / 30, more peanut oil.

Japanese Traditional Tempura Batter
1 egg, beaten
1 cup COLD water - soda water is best if  you have some
2 tablespoons dry white wine
1 cup flour (all wheat or part wheat + rice flour)

Beat the egg and mix with water. Add flour and whisk quickly to mix.   Don't over whisk, especially if most of your flour is wheat.  The batter should be slightly lumpy. 

Champagne Tempura Batter with spice
1 cup flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups vegetable oil for deep-frying (I like a mixture of peanut and sesame oil, ~60
1 cup Champagne or sparkling wine (Cold!)
1 large egg, separated
Cayenne to taste

Sift flour, cornstarch and salt into a large bowl.  Whisk Champagne and egg yolk together.   Beat egg white until frothy.  Add Champagne mixture to flour mixture and mix to combine, should be slightly lumpy.  Stir in egg whites and cayenne.  

The batter should be slightly lumpy, you don't want to raise the gluten from the flour so don't over beat the batter.

Rice Flour Tempura:
This is a lite tempura batter.  Since it uses rice flour there is no gluten issues.
1 quart club soda, cold
6 cups rice flour and some extra if needed

In a large bowl, whisk club soda into rice flour until a pancake batter consistency is achieved.   Try to remove most of the lumps.