Sukiyaki

We make a big deal of Sunday lunches. Dim-sum, brunches of eggs and coffee, hearty pastas, roasted animal, something a little more fanciful than normal weekday lunches of packed rice or sandwiches. The indulgence of this week was Sukiyaki, at home.

Sukiyaki is one of those things that is rather painless to prepare. And very easy on the wallet too, compared to what you would expect to pay at the restaurants. Isetan supermarket is a good place to buy all those special ingredients Japanese ingredients.

The sukiyaki sauce (warishita) is sold in bottles, but I prefer to make my own, since it is just a matter of making some dashi (simmer water and a sachet of instant dashi for about 30 minutes) and combining 125ml of it with 250ml soy sauce, 60ml mirin wine and 125g sugar and simmering it for about 30 minutes. This sauce can be diluted with water to make the sauce for cold noodle or cold tofu. Terribly tasty and versatile, I cannot recommend it enough.

We usually like our sukiyaki with plenty of beef, and other ingredients that tastes good when cooked in the sauce. Like lotus root, baby corn, cabbage, leeks, golden mushroom, shitake, scallions, soft tofu and tang hoon (mung bean noodles). Probably not authentic, but close enough methinks. We've, ahem, got air-con in the kitchen, so the experience is cool and comfortable, not hot and bothered. The only missing element is the sound of samisen playing in the background.

To cook, heat some oil (or beef fat if available) in a heavy pot, and fry some leeks and scallions in it. Add a few slices of beef and the sauce plus some water. The beef is sliced thinly so it only needs a few seconds in the sauce. The other ingredients are added in stages, according to the fancy of those eating it. I like to dip the beef into a lightly-beaten raw egg for a smoother texture. The vegetables also taste even better when dipped into some sauce spiked with la-yu (hot oil). Cooked Japanese rice and pickled cucumbers rounded off the meal nicely. To drink, we had some Sapporo beer, but cold sake would do too. Kanpai!