With a pandemic, it’s hard to justify comfort food like sushi when you’re home-bound and sticking to a budget. Or maybe you have simply never tried sushi, and you can’t justify a hefty bill for a taste test. Luckily, making sushi is a lot simpler than you may think, especially one like shrimp tempura.
Sushi is one of the most popular Japanese gems in the west. Growing to be a high-value delicacy, sushi can hit the wallets hard, especially the more complex and fancy a sushi recipe is. If you are a major sushi lover, you might want a way to enjoy the dish without breaking the bank. Or perhaps you want to experiment with sushi without feeling like you wasted your money.
Shrimp tempura maki is a great way to break into the world of sushi, especially if you’re not a fan of raw fish (yet).
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What is a shrimp tempura maki made of?
Shrimp tempura maki is sushi, but specifically sushi with the nori roll on the outside.
The shrimp tempura is the highlight of the shrimp tempura sushi roll – delicately fried, and crispy shrimp dipped in a light cover of batter. Rice is a must in most sushi rolls. Otherwise, you can choose what is in a shrimp tempura maki in terms of vegetables.
Many tempura sushi roll recipes include cucumber, avocado, and other thinly sliced vegetables. If you want, you can make just a shrimp and cucumber roll or a simple shrimp and avocado roll – it’s all very flexible. All the ingredients are layered on a bed of sushi rice and surrounded by a nori sheet.
Are shrimp tempura sushi rolls cooked?
Except for the shrimp and the rice, the entire roll is not cooked. However, some variations of shrimp tempura rolls can be.
Are shrimp tempura maki healthy?
While shrimp tempura itself is fried, shrimp is an excellent source of protein. When cut into sushi pieces, it makes for a healthy low-calorie dish. Of course, if you use an abundance of vegetables alongside the shrimp tempura, that’s even better!
What does shrimp tempura mean?
Tempura is a traditional Japanese dish that can mean anything that is covered in batter and fried, usually in vegetable oil (or some other type of fat). The batter is usually made of flour, cornstarch or cornflour, sometimes egg, water, and some sort of leavening ingredients like baking soda or even sparkling water. So shrimp tempura is just any sort of shrimp cooked in this way, creating a crunchy-on-the-outside, light and juicy on the inside shrimp.
Another name for shrimp tempura is Ebi Tempura. Generally, Ebi refers to shrimp, but more specifically, it describes a method of preparing butterfly shrimp by cutting them in half before cooking. Ebi Tempura Maki is an enjoyable dish on its own, with crunchy shrimp tenders than you can dip in a sauce. When put in sushi, Ebi tempura makes up fried shrimp sushi.
How do you make tempura sushi roll?
Knowing how to make shrimp tempura maki can prepare how for a world of diverse types of sushi.
The classic tempura sushi roll has the same basic process. It starts creating the batter to dip the shrimp in lightly. You can use any sort of shrimp you want. For example, you can make jump prawn sushi, or use small shrimp. Additionally, you can buy tempura shrimp already prepped and frozen, and simply fry it up. After that, you with making the sushi rice, gather and prepare nori sheets, and then cut any vegetables. Most of the tempura shrimp sushi ingredients can be found in an Asian supermarket or the international foods section of any grocery store.
What is sushi rice?
A very specific type of rice and recipe, sushi rice lays the foundation for the perfect sushi flavor. Making sushi rice requires short-grain white rice, some seasoning or some salt, and rice vinegar. Sushi rice, when prepared and cooled, becomes sticky, which is precisely what you want to make securely rolled sushi. If you choose, you can flip the sushi inside out so that the rice is on the outside and the nori sheet is on the inside. Many people like to decorate the rice with a sprinkle of sesame seeds.
What is tempura?
Shrimp tempura is shrimp coated in light batter deep-fried to perfection for a nice and crispy texture on the inside. The inner shrimp is light, juicy, and tender. Making tempura is very easy and takes only a couple of minutes to cook. You never want to overcook shrimp tempura.
How to make tempura for Ebi sushi?
While the shrimp tempura sushi roll recipe may vary, the basics require flour, corn starch, and sparkling water or baking powder. Some recipes include an egg. The batter for tempura can be as thick or as light as you’d like, and it can go with a lot more than just shrimp for tempura shrimp sushi. There are tons of meat, seafood, and vegetable tempura rolls recipes out there.
What do you put inside shrimp tempura sushi?
It follows the same recipe as a typical Californian sushi roll, minus the usual crab meat. All you need is about a cup or two of sushi rice, depending on the quantity you want to make, cucumber chopped into sticks, and any other vegetables you’d like. For example, thinly cut carrot sticks are a crunchy addition, or avocado always provides a fresh, creamy addition.
A popular garnish is a pickled ginger, although you could also eat it as a side dish with the sushi. After laying out the rice on the nori sheet, the vegetables in a line, and the cooked shrimp tempura, you just roll! You can use a bamboo mat covered in plastic wrap, but any towel or foil works as well. Sprinkle on some black and white sesame seeds for aesthetic pleasure.
Then you cut into the classic sushi-sized pieces (or whatever size you want), and voila! Dip it in a sauce like soy sauce, ponzu sauce, or tamari for extra flavor.
Recipe for Tempura Shrimp Sushi
Shrimp tempura ingredients:
- 5.3 ounces (150 g) raw shrimp
- 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 1/2 cup sparkling water
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Sushi rice ingredients:
- 2 cups short-grain uncooked rice
- 2 cups of water
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 1.5 teaspoons of salt
- 2 tablespoons of sugar
Sushi roll ingredients:
- 4 nori sheets
- 1/2 a cucumber sliced
- 1 sliced avocado
- 2 tablespoons sesame seeds
Instructions:
- In a medium bowl, combine dry ingredients (flour, cornstarch, baking powder, salt). Add sparkling water and mix until smooth.
- Add 1-2 cups of oil in a large frying pan. Once heated, begin dipping shrimp (peeled, deveined) in the batter, and fry until golden on the outside, about 1-2 minutes. Set the shrimp aside.
- Prepare rice—Boil rice in water. When done and cooled a bit, transfer the rice into a bowl and add rice vinegar, salt, and sugar, mixing thoroughly.
- Set up your sushi station. Layout your bamboo mat or towel on a transparent surface. Cover with plastic wrap before putting the nori sheet on it.
- Scoop about 1/2 cup or so of sushi rice (add more as needed). Spread evenly on the nori. If you want to flip, so the rice is on the outside, do it now.
- Layout shrimp tempura in a row. Layer with avocado, cucumber, and pickled ginger.
- Holding the end of the mat (on the side of the fillings), lift and roll away from you.
- Cut the roll into pieces of your desired size.
- Continue with the rest of the ingredients.
Once you’ve mastered the crispy tempura shrimp maki, you can now move on to more advanced sushi.
Types of Shrimp Sushi
There are many kinds of shrimp rolls of sushi to try, some of which are variations of the shrimp tempura sushi roll recipe. For example, the double tempura shrimp roll has tempura shrimp, cucumber, cream cheese, and avocado on top. Once the roll is complete, you dip the whole maki in tempura batter and fry it. Hence why it’s called “double tempura.”
The rock shrimp avocado roll uses an exceptionally large type of shrimp that tastes almost like rich, tender lobster meat.
The spicy crunchy shrimp roll follows that same recipe as regular crunchy shrimp sushi, but with the extra spicy flavors of wasabi and ginger, along with Panko, or breadcrumbs, on top.
If you want a more tropical sweetness, make the coconut shrimp sushi roll. With this shrimp tempura sushi roll recipe, all you need to do is add Panko and coconut to the batter when making tempura shrimp.
The benihana dragon roll combines shrimp tempura with cucumber; however, the avocado is outside the nori and rice, making the uramaki (when the nori is on the inside) look like dragon scales. A colorful drizzle of sauces makes this roll look even more alive.
With the crystal shrimp roll, you continuously salt and rinse small shrimp until they become tough and crispy. Then you dip the shrimp in batter and season before frying.
Sick of shrimp? Try your hand at crab sushi, which usually uses imitation crab. The Kani (which means crab) tempura roll is an effortless, basic sushi roll or maki with fried imitation crab and cream cheese.
When it comes down to it, sushi, be it shrimp tempura or crab tempura, is a world of opportunities for trying new foods, combinations, and flavors. Making sushi, maki, or even sashimi if you’re feeling adventurous is accessible to anyone.
What’s your favorite kind of sushi roll?