Recipe

Shrimps Tatsuta Agé - Crispy Marinated Shrimps with White Wine and Coriander Sauce

About this dish: Tatsu in Japanese means dragon. There is a famous place in Japan called Tatsuta Gawa in Nara prefecture, near Kyoto. The Tatsuta river is famous, as the beautiful Japanese momiji maple tree is plentiful and displays its spectacular red leaves in the autumn months…people travel from miles to view these trees in their full splendour. This dish, which makes use of soy marination and deep frying has been named Tatsuta agé, since the color of the golden red  morsels of food resembles the colour of the leaves from Tatsuta Gawa.

Marinade: 20 black tiger shrimps, 8 tbsp spring onions, 4 tbsp grated ginger, 1 ½  tbsp crushed garlic, 4 tbsp corn flour, 6 tbsp sake (rice wine), 3 tbsp soy (if you can’t get rice wine…don’t worry…just use a dry white wine).

For deep frying: 500 ml to 1 lt of vegetable oil (depending on the size of your pan), 300  ml sauce, 1 tbsp white wine, coriander seeds, 5 tbsp olive oil, ½ bunch of coriander, salt & pepper.

Method: Step 1 (sauce) - Boil the white wine and the coriander seeds for 2 minutes, remove from stove, leave to cool down. Add the oil, coriander leaves and the salt & pepper, blend to a purée in a food processor.
Step 2 (shrimps) - Use large uncooked prawns for this dish. Peel them, de-vein them by making a thin cut with a sharp knife along the back, mix all the marinade ingredients together in a bowl and add the shrimps, marinade for 1 to 2 hours and then fry until crispy and golden (approximately 2 - 3 minutes at 180°C), serve the shrimps straight away while hot and put the sauce in dipping cups. You may like to serve with your favorite salad and a glass of dry white wine.