Elderflower Tempura – a perfect combination
Although Elderflower Tempura may sound like combining things that do not go together, the flavour is just sensational. I was going to give it a try at least ten years ago but I was usually late, the blossoming was over. This year, however, thanks to a friend of mine, who brought me some elderflower, I created this. Take a look.
The original recipe is here and it requires sparkling water but I decided to take the easiest route and added still water. Also, I decided not to go towards sweet or pungent flavours so that the end result is neutral and you can have it both ways, sweet or savoury.
The preparation
Pick about 15 pieces of elderflower bloom with the stems. Do not rinse them. Just shake them to make sure there are no insects inside.
The procedure
In medium-sized mixing bowl add the following:
- Sour 1 cup plain wheat flour,
- Bitter 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric,
- Sweet 1 egg,
- Pungent a pinch of ginger,
- Salty a pinch of salt, 1/2 cup cold water.
Whisk all the ingredients until smooth. Make sure there are no lumps in the batter. The batter should be quite runny, like the batter for making crepes, otherwise too much of it will stay on the flowers and it will overwhelm the flavour of the elderflower.
Dip each elderflower piece in the batter holding it by the stalk. Press the flowers down with a fork to make sure all flowers are dipped. Let it drip a little bit before frying. Shallow fry until golden, turn around and fry for 10 seconds jut ro make sure there are no spots of uncooked batter.
Serve your elderflower tempura immediately sprinkled with some salt for savoury flavour or icing sugar for a sweet variation.
For other tempura ideas see: nettle crisps, battered sage leaves and onion rings.
