Go Back
–+ servings

Enoki Mushroom Tempura

Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time10 minutes
Chilling Time30 minutes
Total Time50 minutes
Author Yuto Omura
Servings 2 servings

Ingredients  

Enoki

  • 200 g enoki mushrooms buy them fresh
  • cooking oil as needed, 3 to 4 cm deep, in a pot around 24 cm wide

Batter

  • 75 ml water chilled
  • 50 ml carbonated water chilled
  • 15 g cornstarch
  • 75 g unbleached cake flour or pastry flour, low-protein, around 7-8%
  • 1 egg yolk ½ tbsp Japanese mayonnaise for 1 egg yolk also works
  • 2 ice cubes optional
  • 2 tbsp unbleached cake flour for dusting

To Finish

  • salt
  • tempura dipping sauce (tentsuyu) as needed, optional

Instructions 

  • Chill your batter ingredients at least 30 minutes before you start the recipe. 75 ml water and 50 ml carbonated water in the fridge, 15 g cornstarch and 75 g unbleached cake flour in the freezer.
    tempura batter ingredients no labels
  • Heat your cooking oil for deep frying to 180 °C (356 °F). While you wait, cut the hard base off of the 200 g enoki mushrooms, but leave some of the white base attached so they don't fall apart.
    enoki mushrooms on a wooden cutting board with the base cut off next to a Japanese knife
  • Tear the enoki into small bundles by hand. Half and half again until you have 8 bundles in total, and pat them thoroughly dry with kitchen paper.
    A bunch of enoki mushrooms divided into small bundles on a wooden cutting board
  • When the oil is almost ready, pour the water and carbonated water into a mixing bowl and add 1 egg yolk. Whisk until combined.
    whisking egg yolk and chilled water in a bowl to make tempura batter
  • Add the chilled flour and starch one-third at a time, draw crosses with chopsticks to incorporate it and stop mixing as soon as there is no more dry flour (it's okay to have lumps). Add 2 ice cubes if your cooking environment is warm.
    egg, water and flour in a bowl, drawing crosses in the mixture with chopsticks to make tempura batter
  • Place 2 tbsp unbleached cake flour in a container and use a pastry brush to dust it over the enoki bunches.
    using a pastry brush to coat a small bunch of enoki mushrooms with starch
  • Once the oil is preheated, take a bunch of enoki, pinch the base and fan the caps open.
    A small bunch of enoki mushrooms fanned out before coating with tempura batter
  • Briefly dip it into the batter, then place it straight into the oil. Fry 2-3 at a time, don't overcrowd the pot.
    a small bunch of enoki mushrooms coated with tempura batter, held up with wooden cooking chopsticks to let excess drip off
  • Fry for about 90 seconds to 2 minutes, flipping halfway through (45-60 seconds per side).
    enoki tempura frying in a pot of oil on the stove top
  • Transfer them to a wire rack and prop the rack up on one side so the base is on the lower side. Sprinkle with salt from a height for even coverage.
    Yuto Omura holding up two bunches of enoki mushroom tempura on a mesh wire rack inside a steel container
  • Serve immediately and enjoy!
    enoki tempura held up with wooden chopsticks

Notes

1 quick pass through the batter is enough: A thick coat fills the gaps between the strands and the bundle stops snapping apart under your teeth. 
Bubbles and sound call the finish: Wait until the big bubbles turn fine and the sound goes high and light. Pulled before that, a bundle comes out oily and heavy with the middle still doughy.
A gummy middle means the bundle was too thick: The outside can color while a packed bundle never dries through the center. Tear the bundles you have left in half again before they go into the batter.
Never let enoki get wet: Mushrooms drink water in and hold it at the surface, which washes the dusting flour away and leaves the batter nothing to grip. Wet enoki dropped into hot oil is also the surest way to get spitting.
Salt them the moment they hit the rack: Neither the enoki nor the batter is seasoned, so every bit of flavor rides on this salt. While they are hot, the thin film of oil is still moving and the crystals sink into it.