Shrimp tempura

These are great appetizers, especially if your friends like to watch you cook, because they’re best right out of the pan. And with salad greens and a variety of accompanying sauces, they become main courses. They’re very, very fast, the actual cooking time being only a minute or two. The differences here are in the sauces, and, to some extent, in the spices added to the shrimp themselves or the batter—but those are minimal.

Tempura batter and technique can be used with almost any seafood-scallops, lobster, fish fillets, or clams, for example—and with many vegetables.