Sardine tempura

Sardine tempura with chili-lime mayo! A little history lesson: Tempura is originally a Portuguese dish that was brought to Japan during the 16th century by missionaries from Alentejo, Portugal. Ever since, tempura has been an incredible popular dish in Japan. It is often made of vegetables, fish, octopus or mushrooms. We decided to make our own version with sardines to celebrate its Portuguese origins.

Servings: 4
Time: 30 min
Difficulty: medium

Ingredients:

1 can Formosa Gourmet Sardines in vegetable oil
3 carrots*
1 handful green beans*
1.5 liter vegetable oil for frying
*can be replaced with vegetables of your choice, for example sweet potato, mushroom or zucchini.

Batter:

1 egg
2 dl all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 dl ice-cold water

Chili-lime mayo:

1 small chili
1 lime
Mayonnaise

Preparation:

Mix the mayonnaise, pieces of chili and lime juice. Keep in the fridge while making the tempura.

Put a pan of water to boil.

Slice the vegetables into smaller pieces. Boil for 6 min then rinse with ice-cold water. Take out the sardines from the can.

Put a wide frying pan on a medium heat with the vegetable oil.

Make the tempura batter: mix egg and flour with water to a thick batter.

Put the sardines and the vegetables into the tempura batter to coat them and then carefully put a few of them in the oil.

Fry one side and then turn over and fry the other side. When they have a golden color, they are done.

Serve immediately together with the chili-mayo.

Bom apetite!