For this mushroom tempura, use only one varietal or all 3. Whichever you like and/or can easily find at the grocery store!

Enoki, Beech, and Oyster Mushroom Tempura

Chef Daniel Sharp

Time: 20 minutes

Daniel (@chefsharp) is currently a culinary consultant. Before that he was the executive chef at Intercambio in Oaxaca, Mexico. He grew up in California, worked at Chez Panisse, and was the Director of Culinary Operations for The Meatball Shop Group. He once cooked a gigantic meatball on the Rachel Ray show. He’s a ‘Chopped Champion’ and he taught 8 virtual cooking classes with Lanyap Cookery back when those were a thing.

Ingredients List

1 package Enoki Mushrooms
1 package Beech Mushrooms
1 cluster of Oyster Mushrooms
1/3 cup AP Flour
1/3 cup Potato Starch
1/2 teaspoon baking powder.
Chilled sparkling water, with ice
Kosher salt, to taste
Vegetable or canola oil for frying
Furikake (use Nori Komi if you want to keep this dish vegan)
Tonkatsu sauce (make sure it’s vegan if that’s important to you)

How to Make Mushroom Tempura

Step 1

In a dutch oven or a large, deep pot, starting heating up your oil for deep frying. Don’t fill it all the way up, leave at least 3 inches without oil at the top of the pot. We want it to be 350F before we start frying.

Step 2

Prepare the mushrooms: For the enoki mushrooms, trim off the woody end at the base. Then make two small cuts through the base (as Chef Sharp does in the video), so that you can easily tear them into 3 clusters. For the oyster mushrooms, cut off the woody stem end and then either tear (if they delicate) or cut into clusters. For the beech mushrooms, trim the woody end at the base and tear into clusters. You want all of your clusters to be relatively the same size so that they fry up evenly.

Step 3

Make the tempura batter: Use a 1:1 ratio of AP flour to potato starch. Add the flour, potato starch and baking powder to a large mixing bowl. Add a pinch of salt, and mix well. Add some chilled sparkling water and mix. You don’t want to over mix the tempura batter, and you want it really dripping off of your fingers. If your batter is goopy, it won’t be as airy or crunchy. If you end up making a big batch of tempura, just make more batter if you need it.

Step 4

Once your oil is at 350F, lightly coat a mushroom cluster in the batter and then gently place it in the oil. You can use tongs if this step intimidates you. Don’t overcrowd the oil or the temperature will drop too much. Refer to the video for more details on this process. Season, to taste, with salt after removing the mushrooms from the frying oil. After each batch, remove as much of the straggling fried bits of tempura batter as you can so that they don’t burn and stick to the next batch.

Step 5

To plate, squeeze a good amount of Tonkatsu sauce in concentric circles on the bottom of a plate. Pile up clusters of tempura fried mushrooms on top. Then sprinkle the mushrooms with furikake.