Tempura prawns & asparagus

Name: Tempura prawns & asparagus
Yield: Serves 4 as a starter
Ingredients: 16 medium asparagus tips, cut to about 8-10 cm long; 2 tsp rice vinegar; freshly ground white pepper; good pinch of salt; 2 egg yolks; 1 recipe guantity tempura batter; 8 medium-large tiger prawns, shelled with the tails left on and deveined; vegetable or corn oil for deep-frying; vegetable or corn oil for deep-frying; 200 ml vegetable oil; 1 tbsp (or more to taste) sweet chilli garlic sauce or sweet chilli sauce with a crushed small garlic clove mixed in; 1 tbsp (or more to taste) sweet chilli garlic sauce or sweet chilli sauce with a crushed small garlic clove mixed in; 1 tbsp (or more to taste) sweet chilli garlic sauce or sweet chilli sauce with a crushed small garlic clove mixed in

Preparation info

Serves
4
as a starter

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Fish etc.

By Mark Hix

Published 2004

About

I often get cravings for tempura and just have to order it to get the urge out of my system. I can then, though, get bored of it halfway through and end up leaving much on my plate. Like most things, however, if you use interesting ingredients it excites the palate, and this sauce from the London Nobu Restaurant helps the cause.

Ingredients

16 medium asparagus tips, cut to about 8-10 cm long
vegetable or corn oil for deep-frying
8 medium-large tiger prawns, shelled wi

Fish course
Starter
Pescatarian
London

Method

First make the sauce: in a non-reactive bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the salt and pepper, then gradually trickle in the rice vinegar and oil until the sauce thickens. Add the sweet chilli garlic sauce.
Blanch the asparagus in boiling salted water for 2 minutes, then refresh in cold water, drain and pat dry.
Preheat vege