Tempura Don

There's a Japanese restaurant in Streatham we sometimes go to when we're in the UK. They do a nice age-dashi dofu but we often end up ordering this, because we love tempura and it makes a complete meal with a bowl of miso soup.

This is my version for Northern France. Tempura is a lot of faff to go to for one person but as soon as I saw the tight flower heads of the Land Cress and tender baby leaves of the Comfrey I knew that the moment for making an effort and gaining huge reward had come.

Rice is, well, rice.

The tempura batter is a little more Japanese-ish than entirely Japanese. Plain flour is mixed with a vegan lager beer, just until it's combined in a creamy, dippy sort of way.

The vegetables are Comfrey, Land cress flower heads and local 'sand' carrots. I also did a couple of slices of onion, sliced through the root end so that they would hold together but they weren't completed in time for the picture. Dip the dry vegetables in the batter, scrape off the excess (particularly important for the comfrey) and deep fry, not too hot, until puffed up and lightly golden. You can hold cooked pieces in a hot oven for a very short time but the sooner you eat them the better.

And let me apologise now about the picture. It's getting dark here, the rain was just starting and my dinner was getting cold. I didn't hang around out there.

The dipping sauce is made from some finely sliced ginger, a clove of finely sliced garlic, 1 part shoyu, 1 part rice vinegar and 2 parts water gently simmered for a few minutes and then strained.

I am stuffed and slightly overwhelmed by this quantity of fried food, but it was worth it. Definitely.