Prawn Mousse Filled Zucchini Flower Tempura with Wasabi Mayonnaise

What I have missed a lot last year was dining out. The slow recovery of my back injury meant dining out was something I needed to avoid, especially the painstakingly slow fine dining experience which can last up to 4-5 hours.

Occasionally, on a good day, I could dine out with Mr J at a nearby restaurant. This dish is inspired by a recent trip to Jurin, one of our favourite Japanese restaurant on the North side of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

I first heard Steph raved about this dish almost 2 years ago and it has fast becoming our favourite dish on the menu. The restaurant serves the tempura with the traditional tentsuyu sauce but I have decided to use wasabi mayo instead.

I hope you enjoy my version of this fabulous dish. It's a great entree dish and not at all difficult to make.

Prawn Mousse Filled Zucchini Flower Tempura with Wasabi Mayonnaise Recipe
Serves 4

Ingredients

200 g shelled prawn, deveined and roughly chopped
8 zucchini flowers
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sesame oil
White pepper
1/2 egg white
Premix tempura batter or use this homemade tempura recipe

Wasabi mayonnaise:
4 tbsp Kewpie Japanese mayonnaise or use this homemade mayonnaise recipe
A squeeze of wasabi paste (to taste)

Method

1. To make Wasabi Mayonnaise: Add wasabi paste to mayonnaise and stir to mix well.
2. To make Prawn Mousse: Add prawn, sesame oil, salt and white pepper in a food processor and whiz until it forms a paste. Add egg white and continue to whiz until the texture becomes gluey/sticky, around 5-8 minutes. Set aside until needed.

   

3. Remove the stigma from the centre of the zucchini flowers.

   

4. Spoon the prawn mousse into a piping bag.
5. Gently pipe the prawn mousse into the zucchini flowers. Twist petal tops to enclose filling.

   

6. Prepare the tempura batter (recipe here). To make a crisp and light tempura batter, make sure you use ice cold water and do not overmix the batter. It's ok if it looks lumpy.
7. Heat oil in a deep fryer at 180C.
8. Lightly dip the zucchini flower in the tempura and deep fry in hot oil for 3-4 minutes until the tempura is light golden and the prawn mousse is cooked through.
9. Keep warm and continue to deep fry the rest of the zucchini flowers.
10. Serve immediately with wasabi mayo.