Sukiyaki

We started the year with a few nights in Glasgow saying hello to all the friends and family, and finally made it to the big asian supermarket in north glasgow. We have come back and filled the kitchen with all sorts of tasty things - dumplings (prawn and pork, spicy kimchi, some random looking mini stuffed crabs in shells - i'll not be trying them), more gyoza, malaysian assam fish paste, japanese noodles, chilli sesame oil, various spices and broths to name a few. There will be many a happy night of cooking and eating - and the kitchen door currently sports a list of all the options - just to keep us interested.

Last night we tried out the sukiyaki sauce. It is a sweet japanese sauce (like a thin sweet soy) used to make japanese beef hot pot. Traditionally thin strips of beef are cooked in a hot pot, then sukiyaki sauce is added, then a variety of vegetables and finally some noodles. The cooking happens at the table and you eat the beef and begetables while they cook and at the end you have a rich saucy dish for sharing. We don't have such a thing as a hot pot so we improvised a bit with a wok - which meant missing out a bit on the process, but needs must!



The ingredients for our very make do and mend version of sukiyaki were:
Sirloin steak, sliced thin and seasoned
Sukiyaki sauce
1 small leek, sliced
1/2 chinese cabbage, sliced thin
1 pack shitake mushrooms
250g tofu cubed
1 pack straight to wok udon
1 pack spinach
Spring onion chopped for garnish

So I quickly pan fried the beef in the hot wok and when browned added a good splash of the sukiyaki sauce and then took the beef from the pan and set aside. Then the leek went in to soften in the pan followed by the chinese cabbage, the shitake and about another 100mls of sauce. They simmered for a few minutes to lightly cook the vegetables before adding the udon, tofu and spinach for a minute or so and finally the beef went back in to the pan. Everything heated through and was served with a sprinkling of chopped spring onion. I was surprised how tasty the dish was and how different a flavour it had to a regular stir fry. I think the shitake mushrooms and the tofu both work to give a more authentic flavour.

The original calls for angel hair pasta or equivalent and not all the recipes included udon. I think the dish would often be served with rice - but to keep things simple I added only udon and missed out the rice. The original dish would also come with a dish of raw egg for dipping - but I decided that wasn't worth the risk in my condition!