Kakiage is a kind of Tempura dish with a variety of chopped vegetables and seafood. This deep-fried round food has a much more casual feeling than Tempura you may know, but it is as delicious as Tempura.
Tempura is one of the most famous Japanese foods outside Japan. It is battered and deep fried seafood and vegetables. Tempura can be as formal as you want it to be at very expensive Tempura specialty restaurants in Japan. Kakiage, on the other hand, is made from thinly-cut or chopped vegetables and small pieces of seafood mixed with Tempura batter and deep-fried. It is a great dish to use up left over vegetables hiding in the corner of the fridge.
You can use any vegetables that don’t have too much moisture. Root vegetables like Gobo, lotus root, carrots, and sweet potatoes are good for Kakiage, but you can experiment with whatever ingredients you like of course. It tastes better to mix different kinds of veggies In Kakiage rather than using one kind, but you need to cut them in similar small pieces so that they will be cooked at the same time. You don’t need to, but cut-up shrimp, squid, or scallop are great additional flavors in this dish.
Kakiage can be eaten, just like Tempura, with Tempura sauce (our Mentsuyu), but it is also used as a topping for Udon or Soba noodles and Donburi (rice bowl) dish.
Although Kakiage is very easy and cheap to make, it’s not inferior to Tempura at all. Try it, and you’ll love it!
Kakiage Recipe
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Equipment
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup Gobo thinly shaved
- 1/2 cup carrot thinly cut
- 1/2 cup brown onion roughly diced
- 1/3 cup green beans thinly cut
- 6 shrimp cut into small pieces
- 1-2 Tbsp cake flour
- pinch of salt
- frying oil
Tempura batter
- 1 cup cake flour
- 3 Tbsp Katakuriko potato starch or cornstarch
- 1 cup ice water
Dipping Sauce
- 1/3 cup Mentsuyu
- 2/3 cup water
Instructions
- Put prepared vegetables and shrimp in a large bow, add 1-2 Tbsp cake flour and salt, and coat vegetables well with flour.
- For Tempura batter, mix flour, Katakuriko or cornstarch, and water in a different bowl. Do not over mix. Pour batter on the vegetable mix.
- Put oil in a pan to 1-2cm deep, heat at medium high. Drop a couple of spoonfuls of battered vegetables into oil and fry for 5-6 minutes turning once or twice.
- Mix Mentsuyu and water, and serve with Kakiage.
Video
Christina Knudson
October 31, 2016 at 10:49 pmHi! I am an American living in Japan and have been following your site ever since I moved here. I am getting more familiar with Japanese cooking thanks to your videos, so thank you very much! I am interested in making this recipe but I don’t know what the cake flour is called in Japan. Is it literally ケーキの米？ or is there another name? Thank you so much!!!
Tommy Sharpens
November 2, 2016 at 8:38 amWow! Ate a delicious kaki age don at Kozo Sushi in Kahala Mall and now one at the Kozo by Walmart in Waikiki. Awesome! Now I have to get one at the King street Kozo. I sharpen their knives however; every time I sharpen for them I walk past the pictures on the windows and now I am hooked. Are there any Kakiage programs to help me get free from this love of Kakiage if I get too hooked. For me Kakiage Tempura is like a funnel cake without the sugar and lots of great veggies. So glad I tried this delicious dish however; I am starting to feel like an addicted person. Aloha; from Tommy Sharpens in Waianae. MSEd a 70 year young Retired counselor with a positive delicious addiction.
Loc
December 29, 2016 at 2:37 amHi, in kakiage recipe, you mention cake flour as one of the ingredients. If I don’t have cake flour, can I use just wheat flour instead. Or if you can use other types of flour to replace cake flour? Thank you