Sukiyaki (Japanese Hot Pot)

There are times to cook, times to eat. Would there be times that you just want to eat good foods but don’t want to do too much cooking? For whatever reasons, be it busyness, or tiredness, there could be some reason you don’t want to stand in the kitchen for long hours, still love staying at home and enjoying a good meal. Sukiyaki (Japanese hot pot) is on the list of my favourite dishes for a day as such.

Making this dish is far easier than you might imagine. What I need is to get a packet of thinly sliced Shabu-shabu beef from a Korean shop nearby first. Quickly grab some vegetables out from fridge, rinse and roughly cut them into pieces. Put all the ingredients in a pan and cook with the delicious Sukiyaki sauce. Another way of enjoying this dish is like having Chinese steamboat (fondue). Just set up a stove and pot on the table and let everyone pick anything they like and cook by themselves. You can sit back and relax, as well as eating of course.

Browsing the ingredient list, you might notice I added one special thing, Konjac threads (see picture shown below). Konjac is commonly used in Japanese cuisine, including sukiyaki and oden. Konjac has almost no calories but is very high in fiber, often used as a diet food too. The preparation of Konjac is minimal. Discard the water in the packet and drain out the Konjac. Give them a good rinse, then they are ready to cook with the sauce.

Sukiyaki (Japanese Hot Pot) (Printable recipe)

Makes 2 to 3 serves
Ingredients:

• 200 gm beef, thinly sliced
• 1/2 onion, shredded
• 4 slices tofu
• 150 gm Chinese cabbage, cut into sections
• 1 carrot, sliced
• 3 bunches Konjac thread, optional, available at Asian grocery stores
• 6 fresh shiitake mushrooms
• 100 gm enoki mushrooms
• 1 stalk spring onion

Sauce:

• 100 ml Japanese soy sauce
• 100 ml mirin
• 100 ml rice wine
• 50 gm sugar

Shabu-shabu beef

Konjac threads

Method:

1. Mix all ingredients of sauce in a saucepan. Heat over low heat until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat. Set aside.
2. Use a pot or frying pan, heat up 2 tablespoon of oil. Add onion and cook until soften. Push to the side of pan, add beef and cook until both sides lightly brown. Pour sauce over the beef and onion to taste. Then add other ingredients, cabbages, tofu, carrot, Konjac, shiitake and enoki, one by one and cook for a while, season with sauce. Cook until all ingredients through. Served hot.

Notes:

1. You can adjust the amount of all ingredients to your liking.
2. Traditionally, Japanese people like dipping the cooked meat and vegetables into whisked egg before eating, similar to the way of Hong Kong people enjoying steam boat (hot pot) .
3. I bought the Shabu-shabu beef to cook this dish, that is usually used for Japanese hot pot. The texture is still very soft after cooking in the sauce. The reason of cooking beef first is that all other ingredients, especially the vegetables would release some water. If the sauce dilutes, keep cooking to reduce the sauce to your preference.
4. I used Yamasa soy sauce, that's naturally brewed, not too salty but balanced with savoury taste and soy fragrance, adding a great flavour to this dish.

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