Sukiyaki

Recipe for a Japanese hot pot with vegetables and seared marbled beef cooked in a sake and soy sauce broth.

Sukiyaki is a popular Japanese hot pot dish which is cooked and served at the table. Leafy vegetables, tofu, shiitake mushrooms and thinly sliced beef. cooked in a sweet and salty broth giving the ingredients a bold flavour.
You need a cast iron Sukiyaki pan with rechaud or a fondue pot.

Ingredients (for 4 persons)

600 g thinly sliced beef (chuck or rib eye)
300 g of Chinese cabbage
200 g Shungkiyu leaves (alternatively spinach leaves)
2 leeks or 4 scallions
1 bunch Enoki mushrooms (without brown roots)
8 shiitake mushrooms
500 g Yaki tofu (broiled tofu)
300 g Shirataki noodles (alternatively glass noodles)
4 fresh eggs
lard
100 ml Mirin (sweet rice wine)
3 tblsp brown sugar
120 ml Japanese soy sauce
200 ml Dashi
100 ml Sake

Preparation

Place the beef in the compartment for an hour and then cut into wafer-thin slices. Boil the shirataki noodles for 2 minutes and pour.

Remove the stalks from the shiitake mushrooms, clean them with a damp cloth, and quarter. Wash Enokitaki mushrooms thoroughly, discard the bottom part and tear into smaller bundles. Wash Shungiku / spinach leaves, remove stalks. Remove the stalk of the Chinese cabbage, break leaves, wash and blanch briefly in salt water and cut into 2 inch slices. Clean the spring onion and the leeks and cut into 1-inch diagonal strips. Cut the yaki tofu into cubes about 2 inches.

For the Sukiyaki broth, bring to the boil Mirin, 7 tblsp soy sauce and 3 tblsp of sugar until the sugar has completely dissolved.

Heat 200 ml of Dashi together with 100 ml of sake and 1 tblsp soy sauce (do not boil). Set aside.

Arrange the beef slices on a large plate. Arrange all other ingredients (except the eggs) on serving plates. Crack a raw egg in four bowls and stir it briefly with a fork. Put everything on the table.

In a Sukiyaki pan, table-wok or fondue pot heat some lard, add a few slides and leeks and pour in  the Sukiyaki broth. Once the liquid boils, add tofu, glass noodles and vegetables gradually. Once boiling, turn the heat and simmer until the ingredients are cooked through.  Once the food is cooked, you can start enjoying them. Keep adding more ingredients and sauce as you eat from the pot. If the sauce is too salty, add dashi to dilute. If the vegetables diluted the sauce too much, then add more sukiyaki sauce. Each one uses chopsticks to pick what he likes from the pot and dip in the raw egg.

Image source: Fotolia - #128268975 - © Nishihama