Sukiyaki

Ingredients
250 g thinly sliced beef, cut into 10 cm lengths

¼ hakusai (Napa cabbage), cut into 7 cm lengths

5 stalks negi (spring onion), cut into 7 cm lengths

1 stalk naganegi (leek), cut on the diagonal into 5 cm lengths

1 stick gobo, scraped clean and cut on the diagonal into 5 cm lengths

1/3 medium daikon, cut into rectangular slices about ¼ cm thick

6 shiitake mushrooms, stems removed

350 g grilled tofu or regular tofu

2 packages of udon noodles

Sukiyaki sauce

150 ml dashi stock

120 ml shoyu

4 tbsp. sake

6 tbsp. mirin

5 tbsp. sugar

Dipping sauce

2 very fresh eggs (or 1/person), beaten

Serves: 2-3

Time: 40 mins.

Directions:

1. Wash all the vegetables and cut ingredients as directed above. Set aside.

2. In a medium-sized bowl, mix the ingredients for the sukiyaki sauce. Adjust the flavours to taste. Note that the intensity of the sauce will mellow as the vegetables cook and release water.

3. Grease a sukiyaki pot, or a large skillet (preferably cast-iron) with fat or vegetable oil.

4. Heat the pot over high heat (a gas flame works best). Brown the beef and remove from the pot.

5. Ladle the sukiyaki sauce into the pot, reserving a little of the liquid to add later.

6. Add about half the vegetables, meat, and tofu to the pot. Arrange so that ingredients cook evenly.

7. In separate dipping bowls, add the beaten eggs.

8. Once the cooked ingredients have softened and absorbed some of the sukiyaki sauce, they can be dipped in raw egg and eaten.

9. Add the reserved liquid from Step 5 and the remaining ingredients to the pot as necessary.

10. Once most of the vegetables, meat, and tofu have been eaten, add the udon noodles, gently separating them with chopsticks. Once the noodles have plumped up and absorbed the liquid, they are ready to dip in the egg.

Serve with rice.

Here’s what happened...

I can’t stress enough how much Japanese cooking varies from region to region (or household to household, for that matter); sometimes you've got to make a judgement call. Referring to a recipe I had, I started out with a lot of dashi stock. Then, when I added the other elements, I found that it didn’t taste like my mother-in-law’s sauce (she uses only a little dashi). Mind you, my mother-in-law is a bit too heavy-handed with the sugar for my taste. (I’m Italian. Sugar is for dessert.) But the sauce needed thickening. I upped the shoyu and the sugar content because, once you add the tofu and the vegetables (especially the cabbage), the flavour will start to dilute.

The verdict
In the end, the dish was a success. The shiitake were incredible, and browning the meat first gave everything more flavour. I did find that I was getting really full at the end, so we only used one package of udon. But that’s the beauty of sukiyaki; the noodles are added at the end, so you can decide how hungry you are before you open the pack.