Adding beer to batter

Karen Anand, adding booze to dishes, whips up deliciously naughty delights in the kitchen.

Food expert Karen Anand is struggling with the details at Cibo in Hotel Janpath as she and sundry others are getting ready for an event later in the evening. She will be cooking with Carlsberg beer along with some celebrity males for whom this is their first outing in the kitchen. Anand therefore misses my opening gambit which is as follows: “We all know about the use of wine while cooking, but explain the use of beer.” She retorts, “But I am cooking with beer and not wine. This is about beer, not wine.”

Two sober people with just a glass of water between them (there is Carlsberg everywhere but not a drop to drink) rarely get their wires crossed thus. I repeat, she understands this time and soon we are on track and Anand starts talking happily about what occupies her at the moment. “I am working on a book on Indian cuisine”, she lets me know. Defining which aspect of Indian cuisine she will be highlighting in the book, Anand says, “I will be focussing on eight regional cuisines.”

Anand, like many other luminaries of the good food movement in the country, feels that there is such richness and variety in Indian cuisine that it is time to highlight it. Says Anand, “Indian food has been lost commercially. You get great Indian food in homes, but few restaurants sell good Indian food. How come no one has thought of a dosa chain? How come no one has started a tandoori chicken chain?” Why don’t you? I say to her. Wistfully Anand replies, “I would love to do it but need someone with me who is more business minded.” The self-proclaimed lack of business sense doesn’t stop Anand from experimenting. She says, “I have tried beer and kokum together and its yummy.”

For the moment though, Anand is getting ready to make some vegetable tempura but with a twist. In this version there is beer added to the batter. Anand gets it going and mixes the flour with the ease of an expert. There are interruptions, from missing ingredients to inadequate cooking implements to clearing a runny nose, Anand has to multi-task. But once the tempura is ready, and we taste one, there is a distinct beer taste to it making it deliciously naughty (the beer, the frying), yet virtuous (fresh vegetables).

FAVOURITE RECIPE

TEMPURA VEGETABLES
For the batter
80 gm flour
60 gm corn flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 egg
150ml ice cold Carlsberg
Salt to taste
Zucchini, blanched with skin, cut into thick slices
Mushrooms fresh or blanched, whole or halved if very big
Broccoli florets, steamed
Baby corn, steamed

Mix together all the ingredients for the batter with a fork or chopsticks making sure some lumps stay in the batter. The vegetables, whether raw or steamed, should be absolutely dry. Dip each vegetable in the batter and deep fry on medium heat until light golden. Drain on absorbent paper towels. Keep the batter refrigerated if you have a lot of frying to do. The lightness of the batter depends on how cold and lumpy it is.

Traditionally, tempura vegetables are served with a dipping sauce made from fish stock, light soya and mirin (cooking sake). Just light soya is also fine.