Bento

Chicken Nanban

This is a favorite of mine. It is also a perennial favorite with schoolkids in Japan. The sharp-eyed, will immediately notice there is an easy "cheaters method" to this dish. You get a bag of frozen chicken nuggets or "tenders", bake or fry them and then dunk them in the nanbansu sauce and serve.
Like many a Japanese cook - I will admit that I have succumbed and resorted to this quick method more often than not, rather than go through the time of cutting up and preparing the chicken nuggets myself.
Your inner cooking sensei will be very disappointed if you do not make it properly, but it tastes damn good so that is OK, I think.
Now, as to where serving tartar sauce with chicken nuggets, in Japan came from is anyone's guess. It works in some curious way though. I also like to have some extra nanbansu sauce on the side for dipping.
For the nanbansu sauce with this, I like red chiles in it when I can find them at the store, otherwise a good old jolt of Sriracha Hot Sauce will do the trick quite admirably.

Chicken - done properly. Don't disappoint your inner cooking sensei.

1 lb. chicken thighs
Salt and pepper
Plain flour
2 eggs, lightly beaten

Chop the chicken into bite sized pieces, season with salt and pepper, set aside. Heat up the oil in a saucepan for deep frying, at least 2-3 inches deep. Lightly coat the chicken pieces with flour and then dip them in the egg mixture and gently place them into the oil. Deep fry the chicken pieces until they are golden brown. Remove and place on a plate lined with paper towels. To serve – place the fried chicken pieces on a plate and some tartar sauce on the side, spoon some nanbansu sauce over the chicken. Dip the pieces of chicken in the tartar sauce and chow down.

Will you will disappoint cooking sensei - by using frozen chicken tenders? (yeah you will..lol)
Deduct minus one Cooking Zen Point.

Chicken Nanban Tartar Sauce -

1 boiled egg, chopped
1/2 shallot, finely diced, omit if you don't have them or use a bit of chopped regular onion, or even onion powder.
2 sweet pickles, finely diced
5 tbsp. mayonnaise
1 tsp. ketchup
1 tbsp. fresh parsley, finely chopped, optional
1 tsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. Dijon mustard
Salt and pepper
Though not in many recipes, I add a tsp. of miso paste to this.

Mix ingredients together in a bowl and refrigerate for at least an hour before serving.

Nanbansu Sauce -

1/2 cup rice vinegar
1/2 cup mirin
1/4 cup soy sauce
4 tbsp. sugar
1 piece about 4 inches long dried konbu seaweed
1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
2-3 small red Thai red chili peppers or similar, cut into rounds or a jolt of good old Sriracha.
1/2 tsp. salt

Combine all the ingredients in a small pan. Heat and stir until the sugar is melted. Cool and put in a screwtop jar. Store in the refrigerator.

Shrimp Tempura

I love this dish, although it sort of sucks for the cook, to eat last.
I have made this countless times, and the only way I could find to make it and enjoy it with others, was to make it in batches or courses.
My favorite way to have it though is "tendon" style, or served over rice, with a bowl of miso soup, and tentsuyu dipping sauce or I prefer nanbansu dipping sauce on the side. Both recipes are below. Although its another recipe, I also like to use fish, cod or flounder to make fish tempura, which then makes excellent fish tacos, but that is another recipe altogether. The batter recipe is more or less the same, you just have to cut the fish fillets into small pieces to fry properly.

Ancient Japanese deep-fried food was either simply fried without breading or batter or fried with rice flour. However, toward the end of the 16th century, a method using flour and eggs as a batter was acquired from the Portuguese missionaries and merchants who resided in Nagasaki and made fritters. It was because of fasting requirements for Catholics surrounding the Ember Days or "Quatuor Tempora". Hence, the origin of the word, tempura. In those days, tempura in Nagasaki was deep-fried in lard with a batter consisting of flour, eggs, sugar, salt and sake and resembled fritters as the batter was thick, tasted heavy and was eaten without being dipped in a sauce.

In the beginning of the 17th century around the Tokyo Bay areas, the method of making it underwent a change and used only flour, eggs and water as ingredients and the batter was not flavored. As the batter was mixed minimally in cold water, it avoided the dough-like stickiness caused by the activation of wheat gluten and resulted in lighter texture which now considered a prime characteristic of good tempura. It became customary to eat hot and freshly made by dipping quickly in the sauce mixed with grated daikon just before it was eaten. Today in Japan the mainstream of tempura recipes basically originates from “the Tokyo style - Edo style tempura” which was invented at the food stalls along the riverside fish market in the Edo period.

To make shrimp tempura, (and you can fry vegetables after the shrimp)...you will need some peeled, deveined and butterflied shrimp.

Fill a deep skillet with about two quarts of vegetable oil to a depth of at least one inch. You can also use an electric deep-fry kettle.

Heat the oil over medium heat to 360, checking it with a deep-fry thermometer placed in the skillet. Proper temperature is critical. If the temperature is too low, the batter will absorb oil making it soggy if its too high, it will over-brown and burn.
While the oil is heating, place one-half cup of cake flour on a plate for dredging, and line a sheet pan with paper towels for draining, set both aside. Place two egg yolks in a medium-size mixing bowl.
Mix the yolks with two cups of cold water. Add one-quarter cup of ice cubes. Keeping the liquid ice cold will reduce gluten development in the batter.

Add two cups of cake flour. Low-protein cake flour helps minimize the formation of the glutens that can lead to a bready crust. Using a couple of chopsticks, poke at the flour to combine it with the liquid until a loose, lumpy batter forms, about thirty seconds. Do not whisk, and do not use a fork, you want the batter to be barely mixed, so as not to activate the glutens. Pockets of dry flour should be visible in the liquid, which should have the consistency of heavy cream. Mix the batter just before cooking, so that the flour particles have limited time to absorb moisture. In the heat of the oil, that moisture will quickly dissipate, enhancing the tempura's crispiness.

To cook, start with the shrimp. Lightly dredge the shrimp in flour. This will help the batter adhere.
Dip the shrimp quickly into the batter. If the batter appears watery, sprinkle a little flour on top, but do not mix it in, dipping the ingredients in the batter will be enough to combine the flour with the liquid.
Just before frying, add one-quarter cup of toasted sesame oil to the frying oil. If the oil temperature lowers, let it to rise back to 360. Quickly lay each shrimp in the oil, separate them from one another with chopsticks. Tiny, brisk bubbles should form around each shrimp.

While the shrimp cook, dip your fingers into the batter and drizzle some directly over each shrimp so that the batter adheres to each piece. This process, called 'hana o sakaseru', will make the tempura even crispier, leaving crunchy, enticing tendrils on the surface of each piece. Use a slotted spoon to remove loose batter from the oil. These bits of batter can be saved and used, as they are in Japan, as crunchy garnishes on salads and noodle dishes. Cook the shrimp until the bubbles around them grow larger and less intense, and the batter turns golden brown, about three minutes. Remove the shrimp from the oil, and place them on the paper towels to drain.

To maintain consistent oil temperature, cook the rest of the ingredients in small batches. Cook vegetables at 350, about two and a half minutes for most, and two minutes for bell peppers, asparagus, and leafy ingredients such as shiso and parsley. Serve the tempura immediately, with a dipping sauce or seasoned salt or a sprinkle of shichimi togarashi.

Tentsuyu Sauce

1/2 piece kombu
2 tbsp. dried bonito flakes
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup mirin
1/4 cup peeled and finely grated daikon
1 tbsp. peeled and finely grated ginger

Bring kombu and 1 1/2 cups water to a boil in a 2-qt. saucepan. Stir in bonito flakes, and remove from heat; let steep for 5 minutes. Pour through a fine strainer into a bowl, return to saucepan, and add soy sauce, mirin, daikon, and ginger; bring to a boil. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature before serving.

Nanbansu Sauce

1/2 cup rice vinegar
1/2 cup mirin
1/4 cup soy sauce
4 tablespoons sugar
1 piece about 4 inches long dried konbu seaweed
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2-3 small red Thai red chili peppers or similar, cut into rounds
1/2 teaspoon salt

Combine all the ingredients in a small pan. Heat and stir until the sugar is melted. Cool and put in a screwtop jar. Store in the refrigerator.