Sweet Potato Tempura

There's an Asian grocery a few miles from my house and it's been there for years but I rarely ever went. Recently though, my sister and I been going more often because we realized that their bakery section is bomb; they have this Japanese cheesecake which is delicious. We've also discovered that their produce section has a great selection and they have Korean sweet potatoes (the kind with purple skin and white flesh).

As a kid, we just ate Korean sweet potato steamed or roasted but my favorite preparation is tempura.

Ingredients:
tempura
2 medium Korean sweet potatoes
1 cup flour
½ cup potato starch
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup ice water
+ oil for frying

dipping sauce
2 tablespoons soy sauce
¼ teaspoon sesame oil
¼ teaspoon rice wine vinegar
¼ teaspoon sesame seeds

To assemble the batter, stir together the flour, potato starch, and salt and then gently stir in cold water. Stir until the batter just comes together; don't mix too much or you'll end up with tough tempura.

Peel and slice the sweet potato and drop into the batter.

Heat about an inch of oil in a pan to 350F and fry the tempura for a few minutes on each side or until crisped up.

Because I had batter leftover, I also fried up some peppers. This tempura batter can be used for any vegetables and even shrimp. With the shrimp, I'd probably dip in the tempura batter and then rolling in panko as well.

The batter is light and crispy and this makes a great snack or appetizer. I love Korean sweet potato; it's not as overwhelmingly sweet as orange sweet potato. It's more subtle and it's a bit starchier so it has a great balance of sweet and savory when it's fried. I like to serve with a simple dipping sauce made of soy sauce, sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, and sesame seeds which makes this dish lean more savory.

Here's the recipe page: