Our Recipe Share: An Easy Take on Nobu 57 Rock Shrimp Tempura

Channeling Restaurant Nobu 57
Nest by Tamara's Entertaining & Cooking Recipe Share:

Prepare and Serve Guests Delicious Rock Shrimp Tempura

Nobu's Rock Shrimp Tempura 

Nobu 57 in New York City has been our family's favorite go-to special occasion restaurant for a decade.  We love the sleek, cool ambience, but the food is the star. We almost always start off our meal with their iconic rock shrimp tempura tossed in a spicy mayo sauce and served on a bed of greens. After researching dozens of recipes in our favorite cookbooks, we combined several of them tasting and tweaking this recipe to best resemble this Nobu favorite.  The sauce is a little bit spicy, yet creamy and we add lots of chopped scallions and sesame seeds to finish it off adding more crunch.  The shrimp needs to be crispy to hold up to this sauce, so we soak the shrimp in buttermilk for five minutes before frying plus we use a combination of flour and corn starch for the dredging before frying.  This is such a crazy simple recipe to make, and every time we serve it, our guests relentlessly ask us for the recipe.  So, we are sharing it here today. 

Happy Nesting

XO Tamara

rock shrimp photo via the Spruce Eats

Nobu 57's Instagram is filled with mouth-watering dishes

What is Rock Shrimp?
Most seafood markets offer Rock Shrimp when it's in season (in Florida that is from July to October).  It's slightly smaller than others and is a deep-water Florida shrimp with a texture and flavor closely resembling lobster, however, we most often opt for medium-sized regular shrimp if it's out of season. I just don't use large shrimp since this is a one-bite-pop- in-your-mouth-kinda-dish.

I collect Japanese vintage and modern plates, lacquer and tableware.  Check out My Japanese Home  (photos above the leaves) and these gorgeous ceramic gingko rests at Pottery by Sumiko on etsy as well. 

 

 

This Makes A Perfect Appetizer For a Dinner Party...
It's a great and easy start to an asian-inspired meal.  Truth be told I nix serving it on greens the way that Nobu does (that feels a bit messy to me) because it looks pretty and more simple served freshly tossed in the sauce with a generous sprinkle of chopped scallions and sesame seeds on top then piled on a long rectangle shaped white dish with a bevy of chopsticks surrounding the plate. I have some really cute and quirky chopstick rests that I put around the platter with the chopsticks on them and it makes a nice presentation. Put in the center of the table, and watch how your guests gush. You are welcome! :)

Tamara's Spicy 

Tempura Rock Shrimp 

SAUCE

Blend in a bowl vigorously

1/2 cup Mayonnaise

5 TBS Sweet Chili Sauce

teaspoon Soy Sauce

teaspoon Sesame Oil

1/2 teaspoon Rice Vinegar 

1/2 TBS Sesame Seeds

1 tsp Sriracha

+make the sauce an hour before and set in refrigerator to give it a nice texture 

OTHER INGREDIENTS 
1 cup of buttermilk

2/3 cup flour

1/3 corn starch

sprinkle of salt and pepper

2 lbs Rock Shrimp or medium-sized Shrimp

+cut up 1/4 cup of scallions for garnish

+save another 1/2 teaspoon of sesame seeds for garnish

FRYING THE SHRIMP

(fry just before serving and toss it in sauce while still hot)

fry the shrimp just barely submerged in oil that is really hot (I do the the drop of water in the oil test, and if it sizzles a lot you're good) but first soak the shrimp in 1 cup buttermilk for five minutes then dredge in small groupings into the cornstarch/flour mix  makes it really crunchy. Then fry in small grouping too so there's plenty of room in the pan turning often with a narrow metal slotted spatula so they do not stick together. 

 Once cooked to a medium to dark golden brown (about 5 minutes), let shrimp rest on paper towel for a few minutes. Then toss the shrimp while still hot/warm in a large metal bowl and drizzle the sauce over top slowly until shaking the bowl and coating it evenly but not over saturated with sauce.  Transfer to a long white plate or shallow white bowl, and serve immediately sprinkled with scallions and sesame seeds on top and with chopsticks surrounding the bowl.