If you are familiar with Japanese hot pot dish, you have probably heard of Sukiyaki. A one-pot dish with thinly sliced beef and assorted vegetables cooked or simmered in a sweet soy sauce based broth. Hot Pot (Sukiyaki) for One is one of the most popular hot pot styles among Japanese and wildly known outside of Japan. Generally a winter dish, the warm and comforting sukiyaki is a delicious way to warm your up on cold winter nights.
Sukiyaki is usually cooked in a shallow cast iron pot over a portable gas stove at the dinning table. If you don’t have a cast iron pot nor a portable gas stove (neither did I), don’t worry. We can still enjoy this delicious food by using other types of cookware such as a clay pot and cooking on stove top.
Other than thinly sliced beef (ribeye), popular ingredients cooked with the beef include leafy vegetables, tofu, mushroom and so on. For this recipe, I used nappa cabbage, enoki mushroom, firm tofu and carrot. These ingredients can be substituted with what’s easy to find in where you live. For example, instead of nappa cabbage, you can use spinach or bok choy.
The soy based broth for sukiyaki is very easy to make. Simply combine mirin (Japanese sweet cooking wine), soy sauce, water (or sake) as well as sugar and bring it to a boil.
Beef for sukiyaki:
When you are at a Japanese grocery store, you could easily find pre-sliced and prepackaged beef in the meat section. Look for the package specifically labeled as beef for Sukiyaki (store-sold sukiyaki beef can be expensive). If you can’t find pre-sliced beef or want to save money (who doesn’t), a great idea is to visit your local butcher shop and have them give you a piece of well-marbled ribeye meat and sliced it yourself at home (cuts for sukiyaki are about 1/8-inch thick).
There are two main styles of sukiyaki, the Kanto style (from eastern Japan) and Kansai style (from western Japan). Kanto style makes the broth first, and all the ingredients are cooked at the same time in the broth; while people in western Japan like to first sear and enjoy some of the beef first before adding the rest of the ingredients to the pot. This sukiyaki recipe is Kanto styles.
I hope you enjoy making this sukiyaki. If you like this recipe, please leave a rating and share it with your friends!
- ½ pound thinly sliced beef rib eye for sukiyaki
- ½ package enoki mushroom
- ½ package firm tofu, cut into ½-inch slices
- ½ carrot, peeled and sliced
- ¼ head nappa cabbage ((about 5-6 leaves)
- 1 stalk scallion, chopped
- Broth:
- ¼ cup mirin (Japanese sweet cooking rice wine)
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- ¼ cup water
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- Combine mirin, soy sauce, water and sugar in a small sauce pan and bring it to a boil. Once boiling, turn off the heat and set aside.
- Cut the ribeye steak into paper-thin slices (or most Asian grocery stores have pre-sliced beef for sale).
- Brush off any loose dirt on the enoki mushrooms with a paper towel, cut off and discard the roots, tear into smaller bundles and set aside.
- Cut tofu into ½-inch slices and slice the carrot.
- Separate the nappa cabbage leaves from the stem, rinse them under water and set aside.
- Place and arrange all the ingredients in a Japanese clay pot or a cast iron pot and pour the broth into the pot.
- Cover with a lid and bring to a boil under medium-high heat.
- Once boiling, turn to low heat, simmer (with lid on) for another 15-17 minutes until all ingredients are cooked through.
- Sprinkle with chopped scallion to serve and enjoy!
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