Nikujaga (Simmered Beef and Potatoes)

Variations

• A drop lid is the opposite of a pot lid. The braise described in braising has liquid two-thirds up the meat, a lid on the pot and two or three hours, with the exposed top cooking in steam. A Japanese nimono has liquid halfway up, the lid resting on the food, and it is over in fifteen minutes. And the guide's subject is collagen in tough cuts, while the beef here is sliced 2mm thin and has no collagen to soften. The cooking time belongs entirely to the potatoes.
• It also exists so that nobody stirs. Stir potatoes and they break. The drop lid circulates the liquid for you and at the same time holds the pieces down so they do not roll around the pot — one object solving both problems.
• Sa-shi-su-se-so: sugar, salt, vinegar, soy sauce, miso. The Japanese order of seasoning, and in this dish what matters is the sugar at the front and the soy sauce at the back. Two reasons overlap. One is speed: a sucrose molecule is much larger and heavier than the ions salt separates into, so it travels into a potato far more slowly. The other is the osmosis in salt and seasoning: salt pulls water out of the cells and firms the surface, so once it is in, the sugar's road is narrower still. Add both at once and you get a potato that is salty inside and sweet only on the outside.
• Splitting the soy sauce is a separate matter — aroma, not penetration. Soy sauce and miso lose their smell over a long simmer, which is why a last measure goes in at the end.
• How it differs from gamja jorim. The ingredients overlap and the aims do not. Gamja jorim is reduced until almost no liquid is left, into a glossy side dish, and has no meat. Nikujaga keeps its broth, and the meat is there to season the potatoes. Liquid pooled in the bowl is correct here.
• Nor does it overlap gyudon or sukiyaki. All three handle thin beef with soy, sugar and mirin, but gyudon is a bowl poured over rice and sukiyaki is a hot pot where the beef is lifted out after thirty seconds. This is the only one where the beef is the supporting part and the potato is the subject.
• Beef in the west of Japan, pork in the east. Chicken is made too. Pork gives a richer broth, so add a little more dashi if you use it.
• Which potato. A floury variety such as Danshaku crumbles more but drinks the broth; a waxy one such as May Queen holds its shape. Neither is right — they are different results.
• The beef stew story. Tōgō Heihachirō is said to have tasted beef stew while studying in England, and on returning ordered the navy kitchens to reproduce it; with no wine and no demi-glace they used soy sauce and sugar instead. Japan already had beef stew in its western-style restaurants by then, and already simmered beef in sugar and soy, so plenty of people read the story as a legend. What is true is the vegetables: beef, potato, onion and carrot are exactly the set in Japanese curry, and both spread through the same navy canteens.
• More distant relatives. Irish stew and pot-au-feu also cook meat and potatoes in liquid, but both spend hours softening the meat. Here the time belongs to the potatoes.

Tips

• If you have no drop lid, make one. A circle of baking parchment cut to the width of the pot with a hole in the middle does the whole job. Foil works, so does a plate smaller than the pot laid upside down. Without one, the potatoes above the waterline stay pale.
• Use less liquid than feels right. The commonest mistake is covering the ingredients. The flavour then leaves for the broth instead of entering the potatoes, and reducing it afterwards mashes them.
• Keep the heat low. At a rolling boil the potatoes knock each other apart and the broth turns cloudy. The surface should barely move.
• Put the beef back at the end. Twenty minutes of simmering makes 2mm slices tighten and go stringy (cooking meat and resting).
• Keep the shirataki away from the beef. The calcium hydroxide used to set konjac is long held in Japanese kitchens to toughen meat. Giving them separate corners of the pot is enough.
• The cooling is part of the cooking. Twenty minutes off the heat tastes far more seasoned than the moment it stopped boiling. If you have the time, make it the day before (reviving leftovers).
• No dashi? Steep a handful of katsuobushi in hot water for 3 minutes and strain, or use kombu soaked in cold water (building umami).
• Serve it with rice and miso soup. This dish, miso soup and a bowl of white rice is a complete Japanese home meal.