Mixed tempura with dipping sauce (Tenpura)

1. Peel the prawns, leaving the tails on, and score the bellies so they stay straight; cut the aubergine, sweet potato and pumpkin into 5 mm slices and the pepper into quarters, and pat everything dry.

2. For the dipping sauce, bring the dashi to the boil with the soy sauce and mirin and cool until lukewarm; finely grate the daikon and squeeze lightly.

3. Heat the oil to 170 °C. Mix the egg with the ice-cold water, sprinkle in the flour and stir with chopsticks just a few times – lumps are fine.

4. Dip the vegetables one at a time in the batter and fry in batches for 2-3 minutes until pale and crisp; root vegetables need a little longer.

5. Raise the oil to 180 °C and fry the prawns for 1-2 minutes; drain everything on a rack.

6. Serve at once with the dipping sauce and grated daikon, which you stir into the sauce.

Tip: The secret of tempura is cold: ice-cold water and a freshly mixed, barely stirred batter. Don't fry too much at once or the oil cools and the batter turns greasy.