Nikujaga

A shallow simmer under a drop lid, where the liquid never covers what is cooking in it.

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

Ingredients

400 g beef, very thinly sliced
600 g floury potatoes, in large chunks
2 onions, in thick wedges
1 carrot, in chunks
400 ml dashi
4 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons mirin
2 tablespoons sake
1 tablespoon sugar
100 g shirataki noodles
1 tablespoon oil

Method

A DROP LID, AND THE LIQUID NEVER COVERS ANYTHING. The otoshibuta sits directly on the food inside the pan, so the shallow simmering liquid is pushed up and over everything continuously. It seasons from above and below at once without needing to submerge, which is why this tastes concentrated rather than diluted. A circle of baking paper with a hole in the middle does the same job.
Submerging everything in twice the dashi gives a thin, pale stew. The liquid should come no more than halfway up.
SUGAR BEFORE SOY, and it matters. Sugar molecules are larger and penetrate more slowly; salt added first closes the surface and the sweetness never gets in. Sugar, sake and mirin first, soy several minutes later.
Brown the beef briefly in the oil, 1 minute, and lift it out. It goes back at the end -- thin slices simmered for twenty minutes turn to string.
Onion in the same pan, 3 minutes. Potato and carrot in, turned through the fat.
Dashi, sake, mirin and sugar in. Drop lid on. Simmer gently 10 minutes.
Soy sauce in. Shirataki in. Another 10 minutes, until a skewer goes into the potato with slight resistance.
Beef back in for the last 3 minutes.
TAKE IT OFF AND LET IT STAND 20 MINUTES before serving. Almost all the seasoning goes in as it COOLS, not as it cooks, and this dish is noticeably better for the wait.
Reheat gently to serve, or eat it warm rather than hot.

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