Sometimes if your oil isn't hot enough the food will be greasy.

I was going to say that. If your oil isn't hot enough, the batter will absorb more oil than it should and the result will be greasy.

It was hot, made sure so the batter wouldn't dissolve in the oil.

Oh, that sounds so delicious! I am sorry it was greasy. I don't fry much, but if I did, tempura would be the way to go.

Just in case it may help here is Kenji Lopez Alt's recipe.

https://www.seriouseats.com/the-food-lab-tempura-vegetables-shrimp-recipe

We had carrots and onion for dinner tonight, but they were in lentil soup that also had potatoes, red bell pepper, garlic, and celery,.

My favorite tempura is turnips, but onion is a close second, followed by bell pepper. Not a fan of carrot tempura, but I do like green bean. I do not make tempura unless I am also making tempura shrimp or fish.

One of my favourites is tempura. I love all of veggies.

What I have tried and worked for me for fried foods is what I read online which is making sure that the heat of the oil doesn't go below 350°.

What they suggest is you cook your pieces in in small batches and that helps to keep the temperature of the oil from dropping too far. Anyway it worked for me. I put in my pieces usually 3 to 5 at a time until the oil temperature drops.

What I've done before I knew this trick is I have put my pieces of chicken or whatever in the oven on a warming rack over a pan for about 10 minutes at 350° and a lot of the grease has dripped out and things have crisped up. It has worked before but it's been quite a while since I've had to use it. I hope some of this helps. Good luck.

I used to make tempura as a special treat when my kids were growing up. Broccoli was one of my favorites. Tempura was so good! These days I don't eat fried anything though.

One Summer I worked at H. Salt Seafood Galley, I was 18 yeas old. Tempura mushrooms and shrimp were on the menu. I was the cook/asst. manager. My husband ate a pound, that's 16 tempura shrimp when I made them for him......ha ha Yeah.....they are probably not good for us.

So maybe the temperature did drop since I filled all the space in my big new cast iron skillet.

The oil can be hot enough to not dissolve the batter, but not hot enough to not be absorbed by the batter and make the food greasy. Also as noted by yeonassky, you don't want to overload the oil so the temperature goes down and then takes so long to get back up to the right temperature that the food absorbs the oil and becomes soggy and greasy.

Did you want cooking advice? or...just telling us your experience?

Mine are restaurant quality!....and not greasy. The oil can't drop below 340F...keeping it at 360F is ideal. (peanut oil)

Mmm - I haven't made tempura in years, but used to - and parsley was my fave.

Was oil or shortening used?

I always used oil, not shortening - and made sure to drain very well on paper towels.

Nicole's right! I hope I didn't jump the gun by telling you my cooking experience with it. Thank you for sharing as always Kath. And for making me crave tempura :-)

I used to make them/Tempura, ahead of time. Customers would order them as they were leaving work....then pull up and I'd have them ready to GO...► Tempura cod fish was our specialty. OK.....I need to get out the Fry Daddy.....see what ya did Kath! ♥ ♥ ♥

Nicole, just making a comment. ( : I do have leftover tempura mix (boxed stuff) so I may try again someday this summer.

Tempura like other fried things is okay once in awhile and we rely on Japanese restaurants to go through the trouble of preparing it.

We've never deep fried anything at home, try to stick to healthier preparations.

I used to have a Fry Daddy, but when I checked the oil temperature with a thermometer, I found out that it never got above 340° and would go quite a bit lower when food was added, and I would add the food slowly. I used it mainly to make fried fish and hush puppies. I got rid of the Fry Daddy when I discovered that it did not get to the temperature that I wanted, and now I use a Dutch oven and keep a candy thermometer clipped to the side of the pan. I use grape seed oil and keep the temperature between 375° and 350°, but it mostly stays around 360°. It requires a lot of watching.

I mis-spoke it's a Dazey. It is a LOT easier to fry in a commercial frying vat if your frying large amounts of food. Yes....keeping the temperature stable is very important. There is no way anyone owns a frying vat as large as the one I used when I had my Summer job.

And....for your health....I'm not encouraging anyone to eat fried foods. ♥

I noticed that you can buy a stovetop Japanese Tempura Deep Fryer that comes with its own thermometer (Celsius only), and I would consider getting one of those, except that using the Dutch oven works well enough, and that's the only thing I use the Dutch oven for. However, I think the Japanese fryer would use less oil, and that would be a plus.

FWIW, I always used an electric skillet for frying.

I haven't fried anything in years, tho.

Mushroom and green onions are my favorite tempura. I use club soda instead of ice cold water. Yum!

Sorry yours didn't work as well as you wanted.