After making the vegetable tempura, I continued on with my tempura journey to make jalapeno tempura. I saw them in the fridge and I was like “hum….I wonder how they taste like”. The only regret I had while making this jalapeno tempura was not discovering it early enough. These jalapeno tempura is no joke. I like how they give little spicyness, but not too spicy and at the same time you have that crunch from the tempura batter and everything just dance perfectly on the tongue!!! Seriously…. try it!!! If you really can’t tolerate any spicy from chili, you can seed the jalapeno and you will still get wonderful jalapeno tempura.
JALAPENO TEMPURA
Ingredients
Instructions
- Remove the stems from jalapeno. Wash and pat them dry with paper towel. Halve the jalapeno peppers and then halve again, so you have 4 strips from each jalapeno peppers. You can remove the seeds if you don't like spicy food or leave them in there if you are like me, love spicy food
- Get your frying oil ready. Pour about 2 inches of the vegetable oil in a deep-skillet and heat to 370 F on a deep-frying thermometer. Or test it with few drops of the batter, the drops will sink slightly and then rise to the surface and puff quickly but not color immediately. This is the sign that the oil is ready. Preheat oven to 200 F at the same time
- While waiting for the oil to heat up, prepare the batter just before frying. Pour the ice water into a small bowl and sift the flour over it. Stir to mix slightly. You want the lumps to be visible in the batter. Why ? because these lumps will puff up as you fry your vegetables creating the nice crunch. Place all the jalapenos in the tempura batter and toss lightly to coat with the batter
- One by one, place the jalapeno strips in the hot oil as much as you can but not to overcrowd your skillet. Fry for about 1 minute and DO NOT stir or flip them or anything. Just leave it for that 1 minute. Then transfer the crispy jalapenos to a wire rack on a tray to drain and slip into the warm oven. Clear the oil with fine-mesh strainer of batter bits before adding the next batch. Repeat the above steps until all jalapenos are fried
- Just before serving, sprinkle some sea salt on top of them if you want or if you make the dipping sauce, serve with the sauce and open your mouth and just go with the flow
NOTE: Self-rising flour is readily available here in the U.S., however, if you can’t find it where you are or perhaps never stock it at home, you can make your own by using (double or triple the recipe if you need more):
1/4 cup all-purpose flour + 1/2 tsp baking powder + 1/8 tsp salt = 1/4 cup self-rising flour
