Gyūdon

Thin beef and onion simmered until the liquid almost goes, with no egg binding it.

Beef, Fish. Not vegetarian — contains beef, fish.

Ingredients

• 600 g beef, sliced paper thin
• 2 onions, in thin wedges
• 250 ml dashi
• 80 ml soy sauce
• 4 tablespoons mirin
• 3 tablespoons sake
• 30 g sugar
• 20 g ginger, in fine matchsticks
• 4 portions cooked rice
• beni shoga and shichimi, to serve

Method

1. NO EGG, AND THAT IS THE WHOLE DIFFERENCE. The oyakodon and katsudon on this site both finish with beaten egg poured in two stages to bind everything into a soft set. This one has none: beef and onion simmered until the liquid has almost gone, spooned over rice while still glossy.
2. COOK IT IN ONE PAN FOR ALL FOUR, unlike the egg donburi which must be done singly. With nothing to set, there is no timing to protect.
3. THE ONION GOES IN FIRST AND COOKS SOFT. 8 to 10 minutes in the simmering liquid before the beef arrives. Onion added with thin beef is still crunchy when the beef is already overdone.
4. Dashi, soy, mirin, sake and sugar brought to a simmer with the ginger.
5. Onion in, 8 minutes, until translucent and collapsing at the edges.
6. BEEF IN SLICE BY SLICE, spread flat, not dropped in as a block. A block welds into a lump that cooks unevenly and has to be pulled apart afterwards.
7. 3 to 4 minutes only. Paper-thin beef is done the moment it loses its red.
8. SKIM THE GREY FOAM as it rises. It is what makes a bowl taste muddy rather than clean.
9. Then reduce, uncovered, 3 to 4 minutes, until the liquid has dropped to a glossy inch in the base.
10. Spoon over rice with some of that liquid -- not all of it, or the rice goes to soup. Beni shoga and shichimi on top.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Japan · All recipes