Sukiyaki

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Photo by kyaabo/flickr

Serves 6.

Ingredients

1 kg/2 lb well-marbled tender beef in one piece (or ready-sliced from a Japanese store)
oil or beef suet for greasing pan
125 ml/4 fl oz/1/2 cup Japanese soy sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
3 tablespoons sake
250 ml/8 fl oz/1 cup beef stock
1 small can winter bamboo shoots, drained and sliced
6 spring onions (scallions) in bite-sized lengths
250 g/8 oz fresh mushrooms, wiped with damp paper and thickly sliced
2 white onions, each cut in 8 wedges
2 cups fresh bean sprouts, tails removed
1/2 small Chinese white cabbage, sliced
2 squares bean curd, sliced
1 packet shirataki or 60 g/2 oz bean starch vermicelli
6 eggs, optional

Directions

Freeze the steak for an hour or until firm enough to cut into very thin slices. Combine soy sauce, sugar, sake and beef stock in a jug. Prepare the vegetables and bean curd, and lay them out on a tray. Cook and drain the noodles.

Heat a heavy iron frying pan and add just enough oil to grease base lightly, or rub pan with beef suet until well greased. Add half of each vegetable to pan and fry on high heat for 2 minutes or until half cooked. Push to side of pan and add slices of meat in one layer. Turn each piece over almost immediately. Sprinkle with some of the liquid, adding enough to moisten all the food in the pan.

Break an egg in each bowl and beat lightly with chopsticks. Each diner takes food from the pan, dips it into the beaten egg to coat lightly and eats it with steaming hot rice. This step may be omitted if preferred. When the pan is empty, start cooking the rest of the ingredients, adding more sauce as required. An electric frypan is ideal for cooking this dish at the table.  

Recipe excerpted from Encyclopedia of Asian Food by Charmaine Solomon (Periplus Editions, 1998)