Tempura Prawns with Sweet and Sour Soy Dipping Sauce

Dipping sauce:
Heat soy sauce and water in a sauce pot over medium heat. Once hot, add sugar and lime juice and turn heat down nice and low.

Mix cornflour and water until combined. Add to the soy sauce mixture. Stir for another 1–2 minutes; you will notice that the sauce will thicken. Remove from heat and allow dipping sauce to cool. Set aside.

For the tempura prawns:
Get enough oil in a pot to deep fry prawns, then start preheating over medium-high heat on the stove. If you don’t use a really big pot, you won’t need to add as much oil.

Make sure you have all of your ingredients ready and measured out. The sooner you can deep fry the prawns after making the batter, the better.

Put flour, cornflour, baking powder, salt, paprika and cayenne pepper in a bowl. Whisk soda water into dry ingredients until you get a nice smooth batter.

Make sure oil is hot enough for deep frying. You can test it by adding a tiny bit of batter to it. If the batter is floating and bubbling, you are ready to start deep frying. Get some kitchen paper ready on a plate.

Dip the prawns in the batter, then very slowly and carefully plunge into the oil. Add as many prawns as you can without overcrowding the pot. Fry for about 1 to 1½ minutes, then fish out with tongs or a slotted spoon. Transfer onto the kitchen paper.

Serve straight away with the dipping sauce.