Myouga, chicken and duck tenderloin tempura 茗荷、鶏と鴨の笹身の天ぷら

We do not particulary like to make tempura of myouga because the myouga seems to lose its flavor when cooked, but this one came out ok. Again, the myouga was used as a part of the tempura assortment rather than the main item.

The chicken tenderloin was stuffed with minced pickled plum or "umeboshi" 梅干し which is called "bainiku" 梅肉, then wrapped in perilla leaves. This is exactly the way I usually make this dish (Left in the back in the above picture). Since I separated the tenderloin from the duck breast when I made a duck breast dish, I wrapped it with a small rectangular sheet of nori 海苔. Whenever nori or aonori is used in this fashion or mixed into the tempura batter, it is called "Isobe age" 磯辺揚げ meaning "Rocky seashore fries" (Right in the back ). The tempura batter is my usual; a mixture of ice cold water and cake flour (I did not add potato starch this time because I was a bit lazy). I also fried this using the shallow frying method rather than deep frying.

I fried the myouga last, briefly and at a higher temperature than other items, which helped retain the flavor. When you cook myouga (such as in a miso or clear soup) the unique flavor of myouga diminishes quickly. I served this with an wedge of lemon and green tea salt.