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Cloudy skies early with scattered thunderstorms developing late. Low 69F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%.

Although most dishes don’t contain 16 ingredients, this Sukiyaki combines multiple for an Umami experience.

Although most dishes don’t contain 16 ingredients, this Sukiyaki combines multiple for an Umami experience.

I am very hesitant as I pen this article. My reluctance is because of the topic at hand.

I am attempting to write of a classic Japanese dish while I, myself, am absolutely not Japanese. So, why have I undertaken this seemingly fool hearty journey? Because this is a mighty fine dish. It’s opportunity to bring family or friends together to share a communal meal. Albeit this recipe is not terribly complicated it may have quite a few ingredients and several steps.

Before we get to this dish, we need to understand one particular word. That word is Umami. Say it with me “u Maami.” Umami is one of the five basic tastes. It’s right there with salty, sweet, sour and bitter.

It is a bit more vague that the others. Umami simply refers to that sense of savoriness. It’s a sensation caused by foods such as red meats, some fish, mushrooms, soy products, fish sauce, tomatoes, seaweed products and green tea.

What is this dish that I speak of? Sukiyaki. The glorious nature of this dish combines the richness of the wines, sweetness of sugar, saltiness of soy sauce and a plethora of umami in the form of steak, mushrooms and tofu.

Sukiyaki is a Japanese “Hot pot” dish. That is to say the items are all cooked together in one large communal, generally cast iron, pot and the partakers will be gathered about the pot removing and replacing foods as they are consumed. It’s not a one pot meal as there are a few preliminary steps but is served from that one large vessel.

Sukiyaki is believed to have originated in the latter half of the 19th century. The name might have originated either from the word “Suki” referring to a spade — a spade or shovel often was used as cooking vessel — or the word Sukimi referring to thinly sliced meats. Either word combined with the word Yaki referring to grilled meat.

Traditionally, the dish contains some fatty cut of beef, tofu, Napa cabbage, Udon noodles and a leafy green from the chrysanthemum family called tong ho. Other ingredients might include onions, scallions, enoki mushrooms, shitake mushrooms, water chestnuts, spinach, bok choi, or gai lan (Chinese broccoli). Sukiyaki sauce contains mirin (Cooking wine) and or sake (Rice wine), soy sauce and sugar. The sukiyaki sauce often is diluted with either dashi broth or water.

Rarely will I pull out up to 16 ingredients for a single dish. This particular dish might be the only opportunity I take to do so.

The recipe I use for my Sukiyaki comes from justonecookbook.com/sukiyaki. The way you can make it yourself is this:

First let us make the sukiyaki sauce.

1 cup of quality soy sauce.

Different soy sauces have different flavor profiles. Try different products from different regions. Find one you like. My personal preference is for the Korean style soy sauces. They tend to be less salty, slightly sweet and have a nutty finish.

Combine all the sauce ingredients in a small pan over medium heat.

Heat and stir the sauces until the sugar has completely dissolved.

Remove from heat and hold for later use.

For the dashi stock, you might buy flavored crystals, much like bullion granules, that you simply mix with hot water, or you might use plain water but that’s somewhat unexciting. Refer to the package for the proper proportions of powder to water for the dashi stock.

Prepare your noodles per package directions. If you’re using fresh noodles, simply hold them for service, if you’re using frozen or dried noodles; follow the package directions for their preparation. Drain the noodles and rinse them to remove any excess starch and again hold for service.

The noodles classically aren’t eaten until after the sukiyaki has been consumed. After the meat and vegetables have been eaten, the noodles will be reheated in the remainder of the sukiyaki sauce as the final portion of the meal.

Now is the time to prepare your sukiyaki ingredients.

1 pound of thinly sliced well-marbled beef. I prefer strip steak.

A little trick to aid in the slicing of the beef is to partially freeze the beef and always slice across the grain of the meat. It’ll be easier to cut and more tender in the final product.

Half of one head of napa cabbage, cut through the stalk and the leaves cut into approximately 2-inch squares.

One half bunch of tong ho, or some more readily available leafy green I used Gai Lan, Chinese broccoli

One Tokya Negi, a type of long green onion or substitute a small leek or several scallions, cut diagonally

Approximately 8 Shitake mushrooms remove and discard the hard stems and cook whole or sliced into strips

9 ounces of extra firm tofu cut into six to eight equal pieces

One medium carrot sliced into discs or grated

Now let’s cook the sukiyaki.

Classically, sukiyaki is cooked in a tabletop gas stove. I generally use an electric induction cooktop and, ideally, you want to move the cooking of the dish to the place where it will be consumed. A true sukiyaki pot is made of cast iron and is wide and fairly shallow. Any wide pan will suffice.

Heat your pan on the portable cooktop or your range top.

When the pot is hot add approximately 1 tablespoon of neutral oil. Avocado oil works well because of it high smoke point. Peanut or canola also will suffice.

When the oil is hot add several pieces of the beef and top with a sprinkling of sugar or brown sugar. The addition of sugar will help promote browning as well as add sweetness.

When the steak is browned, turn to cook the second side and splash in a touch of the sauce. Remove this steak and enjoy while you create the remainder of the dish.

Some true connoisseurs of this dish will have a fresh (pasteurized) egg yolk in a small bowl to be used as a dipping sauce for the cooked steak.

Add more steak as well as portions of your prepared tofu, vegetables, mushrooms and other ingredients to the pot keeping the products grouped together. Add enough of the sauce and dashi to partially submerge the ingredients and bring the pot to a boil.

Turn the heat to a simmer, cover and cook for a few minutes. Because of the small sizes of the products, this will happen fast.

Remove the cooked ingredients to bowls or plates and add more of the products to be cooked.

Ideally, you will eat the first round of sukiyaki as the second is cooking repeating the steps just as you did for the first.

Once all of the ingredients have been cooked, you’ll have leftover sukiyaki sauce that has not been flavored with all of the ingredients. Use that stock to reheat the Udon noodles and enjoy those noodles at the end of the meal.

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