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Mark Diacono’s Fragrant Herb Tempura

If you're looking for a light and easy canape for a dinner party, this delicious herb tempura recipe from food writer Mark Diacono fits the bill. Just collect small sprigs of fresh garden herbs, dip them in tempura batter and fry. Wild garlic flowers and the bolder herbs are the ones to go for: coriander, sage, lemon verbena, parsley and chives are especially good. It's a delightfully simple and wonderfully fragrant recipe.

5 minutes prep, 5 minutes cook

Serves 4

Ingredients

400ml groundnut oil

75g cornflour

75g plain flour

1 tsp salt

1 egg yolk

150ml sparkling water

Small sprigs of herbs of your choice

Flaky sea salt, to serve

Method

Over a medium heat, warm the oil in a medium pan (the oil should come about one-third up the sides). When a cube of bread sizzles to a quick copper, you can fry your battered herbs.

Quickly mix the flours, salt, egg yolk and sparkling water together in a large bowl to form a batter; don’t worry about any lumps. Dip the herb into the batter and lower carefully into the hot oil. Expect patchy batter coverage; it is as it should be. Ninety seconds should be enough to fry them perfectly.

Fish out onto kitchen paper, using a slotted spoon. Shower with salt and eat in a hurry.