Teriyaki Steak

Serves 6.

Ingredients

6 small slices fillet steak
1/2 teaspoon chopped garlic
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon ginger juice
125 ml/4 fl oz/1/2 cup Japanese soy sauce
125 ml/4 fl oz/1/2 cup mirin or sherry
2 tablespoons oil
2 teaspoons sugar
4 tablespoons water or dashi
1 teaspoon cornflour (cornstarch)
cold water

Directions

Trim beef of any excess fat. Sprinkle garlic with sugar on a wooden chopping board and puree with the flat of a knife. Mix with ginger juice (squeezed from grated fresh ginger), soy sauce and mirin. Dip each steak into marinade on both sides and leave for about 30 minutes.

Heat a heavy griddle plate or frying pan. Spread oil over cooking surface and when very hot put steaks on the griddle for 1 minute. Turn over with tongs to brown other side. Turn heat low and continue to cook until done, depending both on the thickness of the meat and the way it is preferred: rare or medium.

Heat remaining marinade in a small pan with sugar, water or dashi and cornflour mixed smoothly with very little cold water. Stir until it boils and becomes clear, then spoon this glaze over the steaks and serve immediately. For easy eating with chopsticks the steaks may be sliced and reassembled in their original shape.

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