creating

Pippa Middlehurst, winner of the BBC’s Best Home Cook in 2018, experiments with firm tofu

Tofu and veg tempura rice bowl

A popular Japanese staple, tempura vegetables and seafood served on top of rice in this way is called tendon, short for tempura-donburi (donburi meaning ‘rice bowl dish’). I love the crunch the tempura batter creates when fried with the broccoli and Miso Tasty’s firm craft tofu.

35 MINUTES | SERVES 2 | A LITTLE EFFORT |

mirin 4 tbsp

light soy sauce 4 tsp, plus 2 tbsp

lemon 1/2, juiced

Miso Tasty firm craft tofu ½ a block self-raising flour 100g

cornflour 100g

egg yolk 1 large

sparkling water 300ml, very cold

oil 1 litre, for frying

long-stemmed broccoli 4 stems

small sweet potato 1 (about 100g), cut into 2mm slices

TO SERVE

cooked Japanese short-grain rice furikake, shichimi or 1 tbsp black sesame seeds toasted nori 1 sheet, shredded (optional)

1 Combine 2 tbsp of mirin, 4 tsp of soy sauce and the lemon juice. Decant into two dipping bowls and set aside until ready to serve. Cut the tofu into 1cm cubes, put in a shallow bowl and add

2 tbsp each of mirin and soy sauce. Leave to marinate.

2 Sift the flour and cornflour into a large mixing bowl set on top of a bag of ice or frozen peas (the batter needs to stay cold to ensure it goes crispy). Add 1/2 tsp of fine salt and the egg yolk. Gradually add the cold sparkling water and mix using chopsticks or a fork – mix slowly and avoid over-mixing. The finished batter should contain patches of dry unmixed flour.

3 Heat the oil in a large pan or wok to 180C. If you drop a small amount of batter into the oil, it should bubble very gently, and cook without colouring. If it colours quickly, the oil is too hot.

4 When you are ready to cook, dip the veg into the batter (keep the batter sat on the ice or frozen peas to ensure it stays cold) and drop into the hot oil. Do this in batches to avoid overcrowding the pan. Turn once or twice to ensure the veg is thoroughly cooked. The sweet potato should take 4-5 minutes, with the rest of the veg taking 2 minutes. Remove the tempura from the pan with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper. Repeat these steps with the marinated tofu – it should cook in 1 minute. The batter should remain pale once cooked. Once all the tempura is cooked, arrange it on top of a bowl of rice. Sprinkle with furikake, shichimi or sesame seeds and shredded nori (if using). Serve the dipping sauce on the side.

PER SERVING 783 kcals | fat 27.3G | saturates 3.6G | carbs 106G sugars 12.3G | fibre 9.9G | protein 23.5G | salt 4.9G