For November’s POM Wonderful Blog Post, I made shrimp tempura with a POM pomegranate juice wasabi sauce. I wanted to fuse a little Japanese techniques with Floridian and even a little French and see how everything turned out. I knew the pomegranate base for the sauce would work well with ginger and garlic and lemon zest; pomegranate juice is bold enough to take on the flavors without overwhelming or being overwhelmed. Wasabi also goes well in sauces with sweet notes, especially Japanese plum and citrus sauces.
Even though it’s almost winter, and heavy meat braises with roots are coming into their time, it’s still warm here in Florida, so I wanted something a little lighter. I shelled some local Florida shrimp and made a tempura batter, lightly frying them in vegetable oil.
This could either be an appetizer or a main course, depending on how many shrimp are made. Christey and I couldn’t imagine moving on to anything else after this, so between us we devoured over a pound of shrimp. The wasabi did work well with the fruitiness of the sauce without giving that nose-bomb announcement of its presence. It was surprisingly subtle.
Pomegranate Wasabi Sauce
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp grated or chopped fresh ginger
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 shallot, chopped
1/4 cup soy sauce
3/4 cup POM 100% pomegranate juice
1/2 tbsp lemon zest (divided)
1 tsp wasabi paste (more or less to taste)
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp cornstarch
1/4 cup water
kosher salt to adjust
Tempura batter
1 egg yolk
1 cup flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 cup cold sparkling water
kosher salt to taste
Fresh shrimp — peeled and deveined. Tail shell may be left on or removed.
There are a bunch of variations to this recipe — the sauce could have been poured over the shrimp, or used as a dipping sauce like we did. Vegetarians could substitute squash and other vegetables instead of shrimp for the tempura. Vegans could substitute an yolk’s worth of vegetable oil and dijon mustard for the egg yolk (for the fat and lecithin) in the batter.
For many more pictures, and a step-by-step, visit: http://fotocuisine.com/2009/11/22/shrimp-tempura-with-pom-wasabi-sauce/
