Shabu-shabu

A plain kombu broth meat is swished through for seconds, with two dipping sauces doing the work.

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

Ingredients

the pot

2 litres water
30 g kombu
600 g beef sirloin, sliced paper thin
400 g Chinese cabbage
300 g tofu, in slabs
200 g shiitake and enoki mushrooms
200 g shirataki noodles

goma dare

4 tablespoons sesame paste
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons mirin
2 tablespoons dashi
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar

to serve

150 ml ponzu
4 spring onions, finely sliced
2 tablespoons grated daikon

Method

THE BROTH IS KOMBU AND WATER AND NOTHING ELSE. No soy, no mirin, no salt. The sukiyaki on this site is the opposite -- a shallow sweet soy braise where the liquid IS the seasoning -- and here the pot is deliberately plain so that the two dipping sauces carry everything.
Season the broth and the sauces have nothing to contrast with, and both taste muddied.
Kombu in the cold water 30 minutes, then brought slowly to just below a simmer and the kombu LIFTED OUT before it boils, as on the dashi page.
SWISHED FOR SECONDS, NOT SIMMERED. A slice of beef is held in chopsticks and moved through the broth two or three times -- about five seconds, until it has just lost its red. Left in the pot it overcooks in half a minute and tightens.
The meat must be sliced PAPER THIN for that to work. Freezing it 40 minutes makes it possible at home, or ask a butcher.
Goma dare: whisk the sesame paste with the liquids a little at a time. Added all at once it seizes into lumps and will not come smooth.
Ponzu served separately with spring onion and grated daikon stirred in. Two sauces, and most people use both.
Vegetables, tofu and noodles go into the pot properly and simmer; only the meat is swished.
SKIM THE FOAM as it builds, or the broth clouds and the last of it is unpleasant.
Finish by cooking udon or rice in the broth, which by then has become a stock.

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