Beef Sukiyaki with Authentic Japanese Sauce
Ingredients
Warishita Sauce
- 3 tbsp sake drinking grade preferred
- 3 tbsp mirin
- 2 tbsp light brown sugar or white sugar
- 3 tbsp Japanese soy sauce (koikuchi shoyu)
- 3 tbsp water
- 5 g dried kelp (kombu) or pinch of instant dashi granules
Sukiyaki
- 1 tbsp beef suet (fat) or lard/neutral oil
- 250 g thinly sliced beef well-marbled ribeye or chuck, sliced 2mm thick
- 200 g firm tofu drained, or yaki-tofu
- 2 leaves Napa cabbage or regular green cabbage
- 4 fresh shiitake mushroom or cremini
- 60 g enoki mushrooms root ends trimmed, or mushroom of your choice
- ½ carrot sliced thinly
- 1 Japanese leek (naganegi) or regular leeks
- 75 g chrysanthemum greens (shungiku) or watercress/spinach
- 2 pasteurized eggs optional
- 2 portions cooked udon noodles optional
Instructions
Sukiyaki Sauce (warishita)
- Add 3 tbsp mirin and 3 tbsp sake to a small sauce pan and bring to a boil over a medium heat for 1-2 minutes.
- Lower the heat to medium-low and add 3 tbsp Japanese soy sauce (koikuchi shoyu), 2 tbsp light brown sugar and 3 tbsp water. Stir over the heat until the sugar has dissolved.
- Place 5 g dried kelp (kombu) in the sauce and leave to soak at room temperature for about 30 minutes (or until the kombu has rehydrated).
Sukiyaki
- While the kombu is soaking, prepare your tofu and vegetables.• 200 g firm tofu - large cubes• 2 leaves Napa cabbage - roughly cut• 60 g enoki mushrooms - cut off the roots• ½ carrot - peel and slice about 1cm thick, use a cutter to make decorative shapes (optional)• 1 Japanese leek (naganegi) - cut diagonally into 5-6cm pieces• 4 fresh shiitake mushroom - stems trimmed and decorative incisions cut on caps (optional)
- Once the sauce is ready, heat a wide, shallow iron pot over a medium heat and coat evenly with 1 tbsp beef suet (fat) or lard.
- After the fat is melted and the pot is hot, add the leek and cook until slightly charred.
- When the leeks are lightly browned, push them to one side and add the sauce, tofu and vegetables (except the crown daisy). Bring the sauce to a boil and then lower the heat to a simmer.
- Make some space between the ingredients and add 250 g thinly sliced beef so that it's in contact with the sauce.
- Turn the tofu over and add 75 g chrysanthemum greens (shungiku) to the pot.
- Simmer without a lid until the beef and vegetables are cooked to your liking. (Approximately 5-15 minutes depending on the ingredient.)As each ingredient cooks, remove it from the pot and distribute between each person. Top up with more ingredients as you go.
- Give each person a bowl and a raw pasteurised egg. Each person should crack the egg into the bowl and whisk thoroughly before using it to dip the cooked sukiyaki ingredients. (optional)
- Once all of the ingredients are eaten, enjoy the last of the sauce by adding some cooked udon or shirataki noodles.
- Enjoy!
Notes
Buy pre-sliced sukiyaki beef at an Asian market if possible. If you slice yourself, use a well-marbled cut and slice across the grain to about 2 mm.
Sukiyaki-thin-sliced beef cooks in under 60 seconds. Remove or relocate slices to the pot's cooler edges the moment they lose their pink color, as even 30 seconds too long in simmering sauce toughens the proteins.
Treat the center as the hot cook zone and the rim as a cooler holding zone. Parking finished beef at the edge prevents overcooking while vegetables keep simmering in the center.
Cook in waves, not all at once. Add fresh ingredients as cooked ones disappear, serve each person continuously throughout the meal, and finish with udon in the flavor-concentrated final sauce.
Pair every bite with plain steamed rice and the raw egg dip to balance the rich, salty-sweet intensity.
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