Name: Sukiyaki (Beef Hot Pot in Sweet Soy Broth)
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 3 servings
Cuisine: Japanese
Ingredients: 100 ml soy sauce; 100 ml mirin; 50 ml sake; 2 tbsp sugar; 100 ml kelp water; 400 g beef; 2 stalks leek; 300 g grilled firm tofu; 4 pcs shiitake mushrooms; 100 g enoki mushrooms; 200 g napa cabbage; 1 handful shungiku; 200 g shirataki noodles; 1 piece beef suet; 3 pcs eggs; 3 bowls cooked rice

Ingredients

3servings

Warishita (make it first and let it cool)
soy sauce · Japanese koikuchi or dark Korean100 ml
mirin100 ml
sake · or more mirin and less sugar50 ml
sugar · hold 1 tbsp back for the pan2 tbsp
kelp water · or plain water100 ml
For the pot
beef · sirloin or chuck flap, sliced 1.5-2mm400 g
leek · Japanese negi; 1cm on the bias2 stalks
grilled firm tofu · silken tofu falls apart300 g
shiitake mushrooms · stems off, a cross cut in each cap4 pcs
enoki mushrooms · goes in last100 g
napa cabbage · cut the ribs and leaves separately200 g
shungiku · chrysanthemum greens; in at the very end1 handful
shirataki noodles · blanch them first200 g
beef suet · or 1 tbsp neutral oil1 piece
To serve
eggs · one each, beaten in a small bowl to dip into3 pcs
cooked rice · or finish with udon in the pot3 bowls

Steps

Make the warishita. Warm the soy sauce, mirin, sake, 1 tbsp of the sugar and the kelp water together just until the sugar dissolves — do not boil it, or the mirin aroma goes — then let it cool.
⏲ 3 min
Press the tofu dry with kitchen paper and cut it 2cm thick. Slice the leek 1cm on the bias, pull the stems off the shiitake and cut a cross in each cap.
⏲ 5 min
Cut the napa cabbage, keeping ribs and leaves apart. The ribs take much longer, so they go in at the start and the leaves later.
⏲ 2 min
Blanch the shirataki for 2 minutes and rinse under cold water. That is what takes the limey smell off them.
⏲ 2 min
Heat the pot over medium heat and melt the suet, rubbing it over the base and up the sides.
⏲ 1 min
Lay in two or three of the best slices of beef and scatter the reserved 1 tbsp sugar directly over them. It caramelises against the hot pan — a flavour you do not get if all the sugar went into the warishita.
⏲ 1 min
Pour two tablespoons of warishita in beside the meat, turn the slices and give them 30 seconds. The moment the red has just gone, lift them out, dip in egg and eat them first. That opening bite is the point of the dish.
⏲ 1 min
Clear the pot and arrange the leek, tofu, shiitake, shirataki and cabbage ribs in their own zones. Keeping each ingredient in one place is how you can see what is done and what is not.
⏲ 3 min
Add warishita to one third of the height of the ingredients, no more. No water goes in — the liquid the cabbage and mushrooms give up becomes the broth.
⏲ 1 min
Simmer uncovered over medium heat for 6 minutes. Once it is bubbling and the cabbage ribs look translucent, lay the leaves on top.
⏲ 6 min
Slide the remaining beef in a slice at a time and give it 30-40 seconds. Take it out as soon as the red goes; slices this thin turn tough almost immediately if you leave them.
⏲ 1 min
Add the enoki and shungiku last and give them 30 seconds only. Shungiku loses its scent once it wilts completely.
⏲ 1 min
Beat an egg in each bowl and dip the hot food into it — it cools each piece and coats it, softening the seasoning. If the broth reduces and turns salty, loosen it with a splash of sake or kelp water.
⏲ 2 min

Tips & Variations

Variations

Kanto and Kansai. The recipe above is the Kanto (Tokyo) way: warishita mixed

in advance and poured in. The Kansai (Osaka) way skips the mixture — the beef is seared in the hot pot first, sugar and soy sauce go straight onto it, and the broth is only what the ingredients release. It seasons less evenly and puts the beef further forward.

If raw egg is not for you, beat an onsen egg cooked at 65°C instead, or dip

into grated daikon mixed with soy sauce. The egg is there to cool each piece and coat it rather than to add flavour, and both of those do that job.

The finish (shime). Two minutes of udon in the leftover broth makes nikomi

udon (see udon); rice and a beaten egg make zosui. If the broth has gone salty, loosen it with kelp water rather than plain water.

The same thin-sliced beef turns up in gyudon. Sukiyaki leads with

sugar; gyudon leads with dashi and onion.

Tips

The thickness of the beef decides the dish. 1.5-2mm. Ask a butcher for

"sukiyaki cut", or half-freeze a piece for 30 minutes and slice it yourself. Past 3mm, 30 seconds will not cook it, and cooking it long enough makes it tough — cooking meat and resting explains why.

Adding no water is the rule. 200g of napa cabbage gives up more liquid than

you would expect. Start with a generous broth and the ingredients end up submerged, which makes a stew.

Use the sugar in two goes: a tablespoon in the warishita, a tablespoon

straight onto the beef in the pan. The second one is where the caramel note comes from. Balancing that against the salt is the same problem as in balancing flavour.