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Tempura is a classic Japanese dish of deep fried battered vegetables or seafood, generally served on rice.

I cooked a vegetarian tempura, that uses Nira leaves from my garden. As I told you some days ago (Stir-fried Spaghetti with Nira), Nira is producing new aromatic leaves after winter dormancy: it's harvest time!

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Vegetarian Tempura with Nira

Ingredients
Serves four:
1 sweet potato
1 courgette
1 carrot
150g pumpkin
150g mushrooms
1 bell pepper, green
400g rice

Batter:
1 egg
125ml milk
125ml water
200g white flour

Sauce:
100ml soya sauce
4 tbsp. sake
1 tsp. sugar
a bunch of Nira

Directions
Prepare the batter.
Cut the pepper into thin slices, place them into the batter and fry them for 10 minutes in seed oil, until tender. Set aside.
Repeat for other vegetables: cut the sweet potato into 1 cm cubes, carrot and courgette into 1/2 cm slices, pumpkin into sticks, mushrooms in stipes. Fry them separately, then set aside.
Prepare the sauce, mixing soya sauce, sake, sugar and minced Nira in a small bowl.
Cook the rice and drain it well.
Put rice in individual bowls, covered with fried vegetables, and serve with the sauce.

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Links
Japan cuisine on erbeincucina: Sukiyaki
Japan cuisine on erbeincucina: Meat tempura with Shishito Peppers
Nira on Wikipedia

A.W.E.D (A Worldly Epicurean's Delight) was started from DK's Culinary Bazaar and this month is hosted by Home Cook's Recipe's.

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