00:01Sukiyaki isn't your everyday dish. Its rich flavours and premium ingredients make it special.
00:06Despite it being a luxury dish, it's surprisingly easy to make and I'm going to show you how.
00:12You can also find this recipe on my website, along with over 400 other Japanese recipes.
00:17Just google sukiyaki space stachi to find me.
00:21First let's make sukiyaki sauce, what's known as warishita.
00:25Grab a saucepan and add 3 tablespoons of mirin, and 3 tablespoons of sake, boil it over medium
00:33heat for 1 or 2 minutes, then reduce the heat to medium low and add 3 tablespoons of soy
00:41sauce, 2 tablespoons of light brown sugar, and 3 tablespoons of water.
00:47Mix it over low heat until its sugar has dissolved, then pour into your heat proof container,
00:59and add 5 grams of kombu for some umami. I'm going to leave that to soak for about 30 minutes.
01:06While you wait, prepare your ingredients. For the vegetables, I have 75 grams of cran daisy,
01:12known in Japanese as shungiku, 60 grams of enoki mushrooms, 2 napa cabbage leaves, 200 grams
01:20of grilled firm tofu, 4 shiitake mushrooms, and half a carrot cut into decorative flowers.
01:28I have also cut one Japanese leek we call negi. Usually, I diagonally slice it like you can see
01:34on the right side, but this time I've also cut a couple of cylinders to show you how to eat
01:40sukiyaki
01:40in a different style. Finally, I've got about 300 grams of thinly sliced wagyu beef. Don't feel like
01:47you need wagyu beef to make sukiyaki though. Regular thinly sliced beef works great and some people make
01:53it with pork belly or even chicken. If you're going with beef, try thinly sliced rib eye roll,
01:59chakai roll, plate or round. I've got more information about the different parts used for sukiyaki
02:06on my blog. The link is in the description. Once your sauce is ready, start hitting your
02:11pot on medium. I'm using a cast iron sukiyaki pot. I'm going to thoroughly grease the surface
02:18with beef suet. These cubes of beef suet are actually free in supermarkets in Japan. You can
02:24find them next to the sukiyaki beef because they're used for this purpose. If you can't get it, beef
02:30tallow or lard are good substitutes. Once it's well coated, add your Japanese leeks and turn them
02:36occasionally to get a nice char all over. I'm also going to add the halved suetake mushroom so I can
02:43show you how to eat sukiyaki in Kansai style. If you're making my recipe, we take the leeks out and
02:50add them back in later. I'm making both today, so I'll save these diagonally cut ones for later.
03:02After the mushrooms and leeks are cooked through and charred, lay down a few slices of meat and give
03:09them a light grill. I'm using this thinly sliced Japanese beef from Miyazaki Prefecture for sukiyaki
03:15today. At my regular butchers shop, they had some pieces with oxidized surfaces and discoloration,
03:22so they offered to drop the price from around 4,500 yen to just 1,500 yen.
03:29That's about $10. Think about it, 300g of Wagyu beef for $10. No way I turn it down.
03:37When the meat is ready, drizzle about a tablespoon of warishita sauce over it and enjoy it right away.
03:44Sukiyaki originated in Kyoto, but in modern days, the cooking style varies significantly between western
03:51and eastern Japan. Since the butcher gave me extra beef, I thought I'd try demonstrating it western
03:58style before going into my recipe. While it's a simplified version, this is more or less the way
04:06it's eaten in western Japan. By eating it this way first, you get an added bonus. Order marbled fat
04:14seasoned to the pan and adds an even richer and deeper flavour.
04:24Ok, let's move on to my recipe, so I'm going to take out the leftover beef suet and pour the
04:31warishita sauce into the pot. At this point, remove the konbu and throw it away.
04:37Next, I'm adding my vegetables and tofu and I'm going to let them cook in the sauce.
04:43The beauty of sukiyaki is that every household has their own way of making it. There's really
04:49no single right way now. My recipe actually sits somewhere between western and eastern styles,
04:56not strictly following either tradition. You could say I've cherry-picked the best elements from both.
05:03Funnily enough, that makes sense given I was born in Aichi Prefecture, right between Osaka and Tokyo.
05:11My goal was to create a sukiyaki recipe that holds true to those flavours but makes the cooking process
05:18simpler. While I've streamlined the preparation, I made sure to keep all the rich savoury depth
05:25that makes sukiyaki so special. Next, make some space in the pot and place the beef into the sauce.
05:34When you think of Wagyu beef, you might picture steak. But for us Japanese,
05:40premium Wagyu immediately makes us think of sukiyaki. That's really what we consider the ultimate luxury
05:46when it comes to Wagyu. Next, we add in the crown daisy and from here, you can basically start eating
05:54at any time. Just help yourself with each ingredient as it's cooked to your liking.
06:00Now, you don't have to do this, but the proper way Japanese people eat sukiyaki is with a raw egg.
06:07Simply crack it into a bowl and whisk it thoroughly. Then dip the cooked ingredients. It just works so
06:14well with the sauce. In Japan, eggs are safe to eat raw, but if you're in another country, make sure
06:21to
06:21use pasteurized eggs if you want to do this too. When we make sukiyaki, we basically keep plates
06:27of raw ingredients nearby and top up every time it becomes depleted. We're essentially eating and
06:35cooking at the same time. This dish is great for parties because you don't need to be in the kitchen.
06:41You can just have a portable stove in the middle of your dining table. That's why you often find it
06:48up onen-kai, those end-of-year parties where everyone gets together and draw in New Year's
06:54celebrations. If the sauce is getting a little low, you can top it up with a bit of water,
07:00but if you're cooking a lot of ingredients, it's a good idea to make extra sauce and top it up
07:05so it
07:06doesn't become too watered down. When I was young, I couldn't understand why anyone would cook beef like
07:12this. I thought, just grill it like yakiniku. But as I grew older, I realized what makes sukiyaki so
07:19special and now I totally get it. Anyway, once your ingredients are all used up, hopefully you have
07:27a bit of leftover sauce in the bottom of the pot. This sauce has been collecting flavour from the meat
07:33and vegetables and we definitely don't want to waste it. I'm going to top it up with a little bit
07:39of water
07:39and add some cooked udon noodles. This is the final step to enjoying sukiyaki to the full.
07:46You could also try it with shirataki noodles or konnyaku noodles.
07:50Anyway, I think I've covered everything. Thank you everyone who voted to see this recipe and thank
07:56you for watching. If you want to see the written version, I've put the link to the recipe on the
08:01screen. And if you loved this video, don't miss my beef playlist popping up on your screen right now.
08:07Hope to see you in the next video. Take care.
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