JALAPENO TEMPURA

Remove the stems from jalapeno. Wash and pat them dry with paper towel. Halve the jalapeno peppers and then halve again, so you have 4 strips from each jalapeno peppers. You can remove the seeds if you don't like spicy food or leave them in there if you are like me, love spicy food

Get your frying oil ready. Pour about 2 inches of the vegetable oil in a deep-skillet and heat to 370 F on a deep-frying thermometer. Or test it with few drops of the batter, the drops will sink slightly and then rise to the surface and puff quickly but not color immediately. This is the sign that the oil is ready. Preheat oven to 200 F at the same time

While waiting for the oil to heat up, prepare the batter just before frying. Pour the ice water into a small bowl and sift the flour over it. Stir to mix slightly. You want the lumps to be visible in the batter. Why ? because these lumps will puff up as you fry your vegetables creating the nice crunch. Place all the jalapenos in the tempura batter and toss lightly to coat with the batter

One by one, place the jalapeno strips in the hot oil as much as you can but not to overcrowd your skillet. Fry for about 1 minute and DO NOT stir or flip them or anything. Just leave it for that 1 minute. Then transfer the crispy jalapenos to a wire rack on a tray to drain and slip into the warm oven. Clear the oil with fine-mesh strainer of batter bits before adding the next batch. Repeat the above steps until all jalapenos are fried

Just before serving, sprinkle some sea salt on top of them if you want or if you make the dipping sauce, serve with the sauce and open your mouth and just go with the flow