Published May 1, 2009. From Cook's Illustrated.
For a shrimp tempura recipe that would produce sweet, fresh-tasting shrimp covered in a light, crisp coating, we chose the largest available shrimp, since it’s easy to overcook small ones. Finding that a high temperature gave us greaseless tempura, we deep-fried the shrimp in a large Dutch oven in 400-degree oil. For our tempura batter recipe, we substituted cornstarch for flour, which contributed to lightness, and we substituted a surprise ingredient—vodka—for water, finding that alcohol mixed with flour didn’t produce toughening gluten and burned off during cooking, leaving no traces of alcohol flavor.
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