Name: Shota Nakajima's Winning Tempura
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 45 min
Cuisine: Japanese
Ingredients: 1 cup ice-cold water; 1 cup all-purpose flour; 1 large egg yolk; 1 tsp baking soda; 1/2 tsp fine sea salt; 1 lb large shrimp, peeled and deveined with tails intact; 8 oz Japanese eggplant, sliced lengthwise into 1/4-inch planks; 4 oz shiitake mushrooms, stems removed, left whole; 1 medium kabocha squash, peeled and sliced into 1/8-inch rounds; 2 cups neutral oil for frying (vegetable or canola); 1/2 cup dashi stock; 3 tbsp mirin; 2 tbsp soy sauce; 1 tbsp grated daikon radish; 1 tbsp finely grated fresh ginger

Shota Nakajima

Tempura

S16E4 Japanese · 2018

Later competed on Top Chef: Portland as a finalist AND Fan Favorite. Trained at Tsuji Culinary Arts School in Osaka.

Shota Nakajima trained at Tsuji Culinary Arts School in Osaka, then opened Adana on Capitol Hill in Seattle, then went to Top Chef: Portland as a finalist and Fan Favorite, and somewhere in the middle of all that he beat Bobby Flay at tempura, which is the most technically exacting deep-fry in Japanese cuisine and possibly the most technically exacting deep-fry in any cuisine.

Tempura batter is a study in controlled failure: too much gluten development and you've made a coating, not a shell. Nakajima's batter is mixed with ice water — 34°F — and stirred with chopsticks in five or six strokes, leaving visible dry flour. The oil holds at 340°F for shrimp, 320°F for vegetables, and he never overloads the fryer, which drops the oil temperature and ruins the crust. The batter goes on immediately before frying, never rested.

Adana on Capitol Hill is the place you go when you want to understand what Seattle cooking looks like when it has something to prove. Bobby Flay, whose approach to deep-frying tends toward confidence over precision, was the object lesson.