Tempura Salmon with Baked Japanese Sweet Potato Fries and Honey Ginger Soy Dipping Sauce. A twist on classic fish and chips with lightly tempura fried salmon, Japanese sweet potatoes with kewpie mayo and furikake seasoning and a sweet and tangy dipping sauce in place of the traditional malt vinegar.
I love making different versions of classic recipes. My husband loves classic fish and chips, a dish he ate growing up back east. I grew up in Southern California with tons of fresh seafood, lots of Mexican influences as well as Asian influences in the meals I made and ate. I was going back and forth on if I wanted to make a Mexican version or an Asian version of this classic recipe. I went with Asian style because I had been wanting to make tempura salmon for a while. We love salmon in all forms, sashimi, baked, grilled and now tempura style.
Traditional fish and chips is made with a beer batter so I used a light Japanese beer for the tempura batter. The key to tempura is keeping it as cold as possible. Chilling the batter and keeping on an ice bath while dipping the fish just before frying. It keeps it super light and crispy and doesn't soak up a ton of oil.
The chips portion of this Asian style fish and chips recipe are baked Japanese sweet potatoes. They are a starchier sweet potato than traditional orange hued ones so they keep crispier when baking. I have a few secret tips on how to keep them crispy when baking. It works well for orange sweet potatoes too.
Don't these look amazing!! I love the wide variety of Asian foods that are always in stock at Cost Plus World Market as well as the ones they have in seasonally. Worth checking out often to see what they have that is new in store and to stock up on pantry essentials! Hope you love these Asian style fish and chips as much as we do!
Tempura Salmon Fish and Chips with Baked Japanese Sweet Potato Fries
Ingredients
For the Salmon Tempura
- 4 Salmon filets, even thickness, about 2 lbs.
- 1/1/2 C Tempura Batter Mix OR Tempura Batter from scratch, see notes
- 1 ¼ C COLD light Japanese Beer, Kirin, Asahi or Sapporo work best
For the Honey Ginger Soy Dipping Sauce
- ½ C Shoyu
- ¼ C Rice Wine Vinegar
- 2 tablespoon Minced Ginger
- 2 tablespoon Honey
- 1 large clove Garlic, peeled and minced
- 1 teaspoon Sesame Oil
- 1 tablespoon Black Sesame Seeds
- ⅓ C Green Onion, dark green part, sliced thin
For the Fries
- 4-6 large Japanese Sweet Potatoes
- Salt to taste
- 2-3 TbspArrowroot or Potato Starch
- 2-3 tablespoon Coconut Oil, or olive oil
- ½ C Nori Sheets, cut into thin 1 inch strips
- Kewpie Mayo
- Sesame Seeds
- Shoyu
Instructions
Make the Honey Ginger Soy Dipping Sauce First:
- Combine everything except the green onion in a medium bowl, whisking well to combine. Set aside.
- Preheat oven to 400 Deg F ( 375 if using convection)
- Set a stockpot or dutch oven on a stove and fill with high heat oil such as peanut or organic/Non-GMO canola oil and heat to 370-375 Deg F. Use a candy or high heat thermometer to measure the heat of the oil so it maintains the same heat throughout cooking. It will take a while to come to frying temperature so you can prep the rest of the ingredients in the mean time.
Prep and bake the Sweet Potatoes:
- Peel and cut the sweet potatoes into long thin strips
- Place in a bowl and season with salt and pepper, then sprinkle with a few teaspoons of the starch. Shake off excess. Drizzle olive or coconut oil on a sheet pan then place the fries on the pan in a row, being careful to keep a little space between each. You may need to do this on several sheet pans to accommodate all the fries if making 6 sweet potatoes worth of fries. Drizzle with a little more oil and season again with salt. Bake for 20-25 minutes, flipping each piece over halfway through. You can err on the side of slightly undercooked and leave in the oven with the heat turned to 200 Deg F if the fries are going to be done before the salmon is finished frying. This keeps them warm and crisp until ready to serve. Keep an eye on them so they don’t burn.
- While the potatoes are baking fry the salmon. Cut each filet into 4-6 strips about 2 ½-3” long. Season with salt then lightly dredge in plain flour, shake of excess.
Make the Tempura Batter and Fry the Salmon:
- Pour the tempura batter mix ( or tempura batter from scratch - see notes) into a bowl and add in the cold beer. Mixing until beer is well incorporated but bater is still lumpy. Working with one piece at a time, dip the salmon into the tempura batter coating it well then slowly lower into the hot oil. Repeat with 2-3 more pieces of salmon. Fry for 2-4 minutes, until the batter has puffed and turned golden, then remove with a slotted spoon, preferably stainless steel or heat proof metal, and place salmon on a paper towel lined plate. Repeat with remaining salmon. Serve as soon as the last piece is done frying
- When ready to serve pour some of the dipping sauce into a small bowl or ramekin. Place 3-4 pieces of tempura salmon on a plate and a small handful of the fries. Pour a few drops of soy sauce or shoyu over the fries, drizzle some of the mayo and top with the nori strips and a few black sesame seeds. Top the dipping sauce with some of the sliced green onion as well as the salmon. Serve with more cold Japanese beer such as Kirin or Asahi.
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