Japanese food ideal for parties

By Kaori Simpson of Harajuku KitChen in Edinburgh HARAJUKU Kitchen Japanese Bistro aims to provide wholesome Japanese food made with passion for authenticity and originality. Chef patron Kaori Simpson hails from a family of chefs and restaurant owners who adhere to the fundamentals of Japanese cooking: respecting the ingredients and their natural flavours.

Their restaurant offers a relaxed and traditional dining experience, far from the flashing neon lights of the Harajuku district of Tokyo.

From fresh sushi to family-recipe curries, the chefs at Harajuku Kitchen provide a kaleidoscope of flavours.

Tempura is ideal for parties as it’s a delicious, light finger food that doesn’t require hours of prep in the kitchen. INGREDIENTS: FOR TEMPURA BATTER 1 cup of water 1 tbsp cornstarch 1½ cups soda water pinch salt Add all the ingredients to a bowl and whisk thoroughly until smooth. FOR TEMPURA Choice of vegetables and seafoods, such as potato, sweet potato, aubergine, courgette, onion, paprika, pumpkin, green beans, carrot, okura, asparagus, prawn, white fish and squid. 1 Use freshest ingredients and cut them into pieces of same size to avoid uneven cook. Root vegetables and pumpkins are sliced 1cm. Be sure to take shell off prawns but keep the tail. 2 Put oil into a deep frying pan and heat to 190 degrees. You can check oil temperature without a thermometer. Put one drop of tempura batter into oil.Ifitsinkstothebottomofthe pan, it is too low temperature. If the tempura batter did not sink and the batter spread quickly with a crackling sound the temperature is too high. Best temperature will see tempura batter sink half way in the frying pan then float. 3 Put vegetables into the tempura batter bowl to coat them with tempura batter then carefully put them to the oil. Fry one side and then turn over and fry the other side. 4 Vegetables take about one minute each side to fry, while seafood can cook as quickly as 10 to 20 seconds. In association with Taste Communications.