Horumonyaki

Offal boiled and scrubbed clean first, then grilled fat side down over a high heat.

Beef. Not vegetarian — contains beef, intestine.

Ingredients

the offal

800 g beef intestine and assorted offal
3 tablespoons flour, for cleaning
2 tablespoons salt, for cleaning
40 g ginger, sliced
1 leek top

the marinade

3 tablespoons miso
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons mirin
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon gochujang
6 garlic cloves, grated
1 tablespoon sugar

Method

CLEANED WITH FLOUR AND SALT, AND THE WATER RUN CLEAR. Rub the offal hard with the flour and salt for several minutes -- the flour grips what rinsing alone leaves behind -- then rinse, and repeat until the water runs completely clear. Four or five changes. This is most of the work and skipping it is the one failure nothing later covers.
THEN BOILED, 40 minutes with ginger and leek top, and that water thrown away. It tenderises and takes the last of the smell.
The offal should smell clean and faintly beefy when you stop. If it does not, boil it again in fresh water.
Drain and cool, then cut into bite pieces, keeping the fat on. The fat is the point of horumon and trimming it leaves something tough and dull.
Marinate 2 hours in everything else. Miso-based marinades burn, so this is kept short and the pieces are wiped before grilling.
VERY HIGH HEAT, FAT SIDE DOWN FIRST. The fat renders into the fire and flares, and that flare is what chars the surface. 2 to 3 minutes before turning.
Expect flames. Keep a cooler zone to move pieces to.
Turn once, 2 minutes. The outside should be blistered and crisp, the inside soft and gelatinous.
Do not crowd the grill -- the pieces give up liquid and will stew rather than char.
Serve at once with lemon, more raw garlic and a cold drink.

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