Edo-Style Tendon (Tempura Rice Bowl with Seafood and Seasonal Vegetables)

First, cook the rice in a rice cooker. Rinse enough rice for the number of servings, set it going, and have it ready while you fry the tempura.

Prepare the seafood for the tempura. Trim the red mullet, monkfish, shrimp, and skate into bite-sized pieces and lay them out on a tray.

Cut the tuna into fairly large cubes for tempura. Leave enough thickness for the center to stay rare.

Make the tendon sauce. Combine soy sauce, sake, mirin, sugar, and dashi in a pot, bring to a simmer, and reduce lightly. Keep the sugar restrained so it does not become too sweet.

Season the squid with salt only and let it rest in the refrigerator as is, without patting it dry.

Prepare the miso soup. Simmer katsuobushi and seaweed in water to make dashi, dissolve in the miso, and add the wakame.

Make the tempura batter. Add cold water to the flour and combine without overmixing, adding white sesame seeds if desired. At the same time, put regular frying oil in a pot and bring it up to temperature.

Dip the prepared seafood in the batter and fry in order. Fry the white fish, monkfish, shrimp, skate, tuna, and squid, changing to fresh oil when it gets dirty.

Dip the eggs in the batter to make egg tempura. Fry quickly so the yolks stay runny.

Dip the fried tempura briefly in the sauce, lift it out, and place the pieces one by one over bowls of freshly cooked rice. Arrange the seafood and egg tempura in a balanced way.

Batter and fry the eggplant and bell pepper, dip them in the sauce as well, and add them to the bowls. Fry the vegetables while checking that they are cooked through.

To finish, place a small mound of wakame in the center of each bowl, garnish with nori, and serve with the miso soup.