 Kaki age don (kaki age tendon) | |
Kakiage or kaki-age (かき揚げ, 掻き揚げ or かきあげ), a Japanese dish, is a type of tempura . It is made by batter-dipping and deep-frying a batch of ingredients such as shrimp bits (or a clump of small-sized shrimp). Kakiage may use other seafood such as small scallops, shredded vegetables or a combination of such ingredients.
Kakiage is a type of tempura that uses small pieces of seafood, or vegetable or both.
Sometimes the main ingredients are clumps of fish or shellfish that are individually small, [1] or chopped into small pieces. [2]
The variety of seafood used include shrimp, mollusks like scallop, [2] or fish, [3] [1] and can be combined with vegetables such as onion or mitsuba . [4] The kakiage may also use vegetarian ingredients such as carrots, burdock, or onions chopped into matchsticks [5] [6] or into bits. [1]
The lump being fried is shaped into disks, [a] [6] and the kakiage are sometimes described as a "pancake" of sorts. [2] It is also referred to as a type of "fritter". [7] [8]
The recipe may call for gently sliding the dollop of battered ingredients into hot oil, [6] and since it may try to break apart, a spatula may be used to hold it into place until the shape has set. [9] There is a modern-day implement being sold called a kakiage ring to assist in its cooking—a cylindrical, perforated sheet metal mold on a handle. [10]
In traditional preparation, these small pieces breaking apart must be constantly "raked together" (Japanese: kakiageru (掻き上げる)). [11]
Kakiage may be eaten with tentsuyu or tempura dipping sauce and grated daikon radishes, [8] or with seasoned salt, [9] just like any other type of tempura.
It may also be served as a kakiage donburi or kakiage don, which is a rice bowl dish with a piece of kakiage placed on top of steamed rice. [12] [7] A tendon (tempura bowl) may also include a piece of kakiage among other tempura morsels. [13]
Kakiage may top a bowl of kakesoba (hot soba in broth) or udon. [7]
The kakiage typically uses a type of shrimp called shiba ebi ( Metapenaeus spp.), whereas the individual whole shrimp tempura commonly uses both the shiba ebi and saimaki ebi (juvenile kuruma ebi). [14] [15]
Another standard is using a type of small "scallops" called kobashira which are actually the adductor muscles of the bakagai or aoyagi clams ( Mactra chinensis ). [16] [11]
Kakiage using fresh sakura shrimp are usually offered in the vicinity of Suruga Bay, Shizuoka Prefecture where these are caught, [17] although some recipes may call for the dried sakura shrimp which are more widely available. [18]
The kakiage is so-named because one "mixes up" kakimazeru (かき混ぜる) the ingredients before they are fried, or so it has been claimed, e.g., by the tempura chef and proprietor of Tenkichi in Yokohama. [19]
Scholar Ikeda Yasaburō also introduces the same etymology, anecdotally quoting another tempura chef. [b] [20]
Morisada mankō (written 1837–1853) stated that the tempura offered at soba noodle shops at the time used shiba ebi shrimp [21] ( Metapenaeus joyneri ). According to a soba researcher, tempura soba was invented around the Bunsei era (1818–1830), using the shiba ebi shrimp kakiage as topping. [22] [23]
The former shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu (1837–1913) was a regular customer at the tempura restaurant Tenkin , where he would order an especially large kakiage, served on a Nabeshima plate. [24]
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