Kakiage or kaki-age, 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. Kakiage may use other seafood such as small scallops, shredded vegetables or a combination of such ingredients.
General description
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, or chopped into small pieces. The variety of seafood used include shrimp, mollusks like scallop, or fish, and can be combined with vegetables such as onion or mitsuba. The kakiage may also use vegetarian ingredients such as carrots, burdock, or onions chopped into matchsticks or into bits.
Preparation
The lump being fried is shaped into disks, and the kakiage are sometimes described as a "pancake" of sorts. It is also referred to as a type of "fritter". The recipe may call for gently sliding the dollop of battered ingredients into hot oil, and since it may try to break apart, a spatula may be used to hold it into place until the shape has set. 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. In traditional preparation, these small pieces breaking apart must be constantly "raked together".
Serving options
Kakiage maybe eaten with tentsuyu or tempura dipping sauce and grated daikon radishes, or with seasoned salt, 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. A tendon may also include a piece of kakiage among other tempura morsels. Kakiage may top a bowl of or udon.
Ingredients used in Japan
The kakiage typically uses a type of shrimp called , whereas the individual whole shrimp tempura commonly uses both the shiba ebi and saimaki ebi. Another standard is using a type of small "scallops" called which are actually the adductor muscles of the bakagai or aoyagi clams. Kakiage using fresh sakura shrimp are usually offered in the vicinity of Suruga Bay, Shizuoka Prefecture where these are caught, although some recipes may call for the dried sakura shirmp which are more widely available.
Etymology
The kakiage is so-named because one "mixes up" the ingredients before they are fried, or so it has been claimed, e.g., by the tempura chef and proprietor of in Yokohama. Scholar also introduces the same etymology, anecdotally quoting another tempura chef.
History
stated that the tempura offered at soba noodle shops at the time used shrimp, and according to a soba researcher, tempura soba was invented around the Bunsei era, using the shiba ebi shrimp kakiage as topping. Ex-shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu became a regular customer at the tempura restaurant, where he would order a specially large size kakiage to be served on a Nabeshima ware plate.
