Osaka Kushikatsu

Ingredients

• 250 g pork shoulder, cut into 3 cm cubes
• 8 large raw prawns, peeled
• 12 quail eggs, boiled and peeled
• 1 onion, cut into 3 cm chunks
• 150 g lotus root, sliced 8 mm thick
• 8 asparagus spears, halved
• 8 button mushrooms
• 1 small sweet potato, sliced 8 mm thick
• 24 short bamboo skewers
• 120 g plain flour
• 1 egg
• 180 ml cold water
• 250 g fine panko breadcrumbs
• 1.5 litres vegetable oil, for frying
• 1 tsp fine sea salt
• 200 ml Worcestershire sauce
• 50 ml dashi
• 1 tbsp tomato ketchup
• 1 tsp caster sugar
• 1/2 white cabbage, leaves separated and torn into large pieces

Before you cook

• Soak the bamboo skewers in cold water for 10 minutes.
• Cut the pork into 3 cm cubes and season them with the salt.
• Peel the prawns and thread each one straight onto a skewer through the length of its body.
• Thread the pork, quail eggs, onion chunks, lotus root, asparagus, mushrooms and sweet potato onto separate skewers, one ingredient per skewer in the Osaka style.
• Whisk the flour, egg and cold water together into a smooth, thin batter about the consistency of single cream.
• Crush the panko a little finer with a rolling pin, then spread it on a tray.
• Whisk the Worcestershire sauce, dashi, ketchup and sugar together and pour it into a tall narrow jug or a deep bowl.
• Pile the torn cabbage into a big bowl and put it on the table.

Steps

1. Heat the oil in a deep, wide pan to 170C.
2. Hold a skewer by the handle, dip it fully into the batter and let the excess drip back.
3. Lay the battered skewer in the panko and roll it, pressing lightly so the crumbs stick in an even coat.
4. Lower three or four skewers into the oil, keeping the handles clear of the fat.
5. Fry the vegetable skewers for 2 to 3 minutes, until pale gold and floating high.
6. Lift them onto a rack set over a tray.
7. Fry the prawn and quail egg skewers for 2 minutes.
8. Fry the pork skewers for 4 minutes, until deep gold and cooked through.
9. Bring the skewers to the table in batches as they come out of the pan, not all at once.
10. Set the sauce jug in the middle of the table and remind everyone that a skewer goes in once and never twice.
11. Show them how to use a piece of cabbage as a scoop to spoon more sauce over a half-eaten skewer.
12. Keep frying and serving until every skewer is gone.