Tempura Over Ramen Noodles - Video

When the Chef was on NBC Nightly News in June, he cooked Japanese tempura with ramen noodles for the producers and crew to film. Fresh veggies come and go at 99c only Stores, but broccoli, carrots and mushrooms are frequently stocked. Usually, tempura is served as an entree with a dipping sauce.

I first had it served over ramen noodles at a favorite noodle restaurant called Atch-kotch, located in a Hollywood mini-mall . Frying vegetables in a tempura batter creates a light coating while keeping the veggies crunchy. For this recipe you can serve tempura as a side dish and use it as a sponge to soak up the miso flavored ramen broth. I also provide a traditional tempura dipping sauce recipe. All ingredients were purchased at this 99c only Store were the "walk and talk" was filmed.

My friend Drew tagged along to video the NBC interview. What is the saying: "You don't want to know what goes into the making of sausage?" Well, the Chef lets his audience get a glimpse into the making of his news story. So here is a short video featuring the "sausage makers."

Shooting The NBC Nightly News Story - Video

Play it here. The video runs 2 minutes 24 seconds.

Ingredients for tempura batter (serves 2)

• 1 cup flour
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon baking power
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup sparkling water, chilled

Ingredients for frying

• 99 cent fish filet cut in half or 2 small filets (tilapia or pollack)
• 1/2 cup broccoli florets - small to medium florets
• 6 whole button mushrooms
• 4 green onions cut into finger size segments (leave about an inch of green stem)
• 1/2 bell pepper, cut in strips
• 6 baby carrots (2 inch size)
• 3 cups vegetable oil for frying
• Add more veggies for a vegetarian tempura

Tempura dipping sauce:

• 1/2 cup 99 cent white wine
• 1/2 cup soy sauce

2 small packages of ramen noodles per directions

Directions
Heat oil to 375 degrees (medium/high heat.) Combine tempura batter ingredients; should be consistancy of pancake batter. Clean and dry vegetables. Pat dry fish filets. Coat vegetables with batter and fry (in batches if necessary.) Batter and fry fish last. Frying should be 5 - 8 minutes for each batch; tempura batter does not need to brown like a typical fry, just enough to cook vegetables but still be crunchy. While tempura is frying prepare ramen per package directions. Serve ramen with broth; top with vegetable and fish tempura. Put tempura dipping sauce in a shallow bowl for extra dipping flavor.