‘Take your greasy mitts off my vegan tempura!’, hmmm, sorry, I was talking to Duncan…He is always by my side when I decide to make something deep-fried (as I do not do it very often) and gets slightly miffed when I have the cheek to allocate less than perfect pieces to him. Poor Duncan, with all this food blogging and testing going on, he must be so underfed! As I shout at him, I suddenly get a childhood flashback to me and my bro doing much worse to my late grandma. I guess I’m off my moral high horse now…
I remember one particular incident that still makes my ears burn in shame. My gran was a great cook and she liked to entertain. She had a big group of friends who would come to her house for tea or dinner parties on a regular basis. My brother and I loved these occasions as we always got to nibble on a nice spread of food. On one such occasion, my gran was making a spring green pea soup with delicious, crispy and salty butter-fried croutons as a starter. She fried a mountain of them and then moved on to other tasks. My bro, my cousin and I grabbed a bowl of them and hid under the dining table, which had a long tablecloth so gran had no idea where we were or what we were up to. The plan was to just eat a few croutons off the top and then re-arrange them so that no one noticed anything. The trouble was that these naughty croutons they were sooo addictive… When the guests were about to arrive, gran started looking for the croutons to place them on the table. Next thing we know she started calling out for us. When she finally heard our whispers from under the table, she lifted the tablecloth and discovered the three of us, much less amused now, hugging an awkwardly empty ex-crouton bowl. She was “well mad” and we got in a lot of trouble. It was certainly the last time she allowed us anywhere near her famous dinner parties 🙁 .
1 small butternut squash or sweet potato, peeled 2 medium courgettes 1 medium aubergine 3 tbsp / 45 ml of fridge-cold, reduced aquafaba* approx. 1 cup / 240 ml of fridge-cold sparkling water 1 tsp baking soda 2 tbsp cornflour / cornstarch, sifted 1½ cup + 2 tbsp rice or white cake flour, sifted + more for dusting about 20 ice cubes about 2 cups of neutral-tasting oil, for frying (I used sunflower oil)
DIPPING SAUCE
3 tbsp tamari or soy sauce 4 tsp maple syrup 1 tsp toasted sesame oil 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar 1 spring onion, sliced thinly
