If you try to cook Japanese food, Sukiyaki is the best recipe for beginner.
It’s super simple, easy and meccha oishii! (meccha= super, oishii= tasty)
The ingredients of my recipe are easily obtainable everywhere.
You can try tonight!
Sukiyaki is hotpot, flavored with soy source, Sake, mirin, grilled beef with many kind of vegetables, such as chinese cabbage, spring onion, shitake (mushrooms),Tofu, Shirataki(link), but actually you can put stuff whatever you want.
Even it is gonna be Meccha yummy if you grill cardboard in it. (Just a kidding, don’t do it ).
Sukiyaki is quite easy to cook in Europe with general ingredients in supermarket, actually I often cooked it when I am tired and do not feel like cooking.
Normally, Sukiyaki is made by beef but I would recommend to cook with pork because beef in Netherland is basically lean beef and it is not suitable for Sukiyaki.
Beef with high fat is suitable, it is easily found in Japan but it is super expensive in Europe.
If you feel a pork is too fat, I also recommend chicken. My home town in Japan has traditional Sukiyaki recipe which is made by chicken and it is meccha oishii as well.
What is Sukiyaki by the way ?
Recently, a lot of Japanese restaurants in the world serve it as once of their menu list.
However, I have never seen original sukiyaki in Europe at least in my experienc
Sukiyaki is most popular Japanese food which is eaten in every single home. All Japanese people know about it, it is same like Italian people know Pizza, American know what hotdog is.
Sukiyaki also traditional soul food for Japanese, each home have their own recipes. Elder Japanese loves Sukiyaki so much, they request it as birthday dinner, or anniversary dinner.
My grandpa’s birthday was Sukiyaki every year.
Origin
Sukiyaki is origin in the word “Suki” and “Yaki”.
Yaki means ”grill” but the most of Japanese misunderstand “Suki” means “like” because they are same pronunciation. However, “Suki” is actually origin in an old farm tool, which is a tool that a horse pull it and plow ground. Farmer did not have grill pan and they used Suki as a pan. So Sukiyaki originally means grill on spade.
Sukiyaki & Gyunabe
There is similar recipe (almost same) as Sukiyaki, It called “ Gyunabe” .
The difference is just how to cook, grill beef first or boil beef first, all the other ingredients and spices are same. Sukiyaki was origin in Kansai(west) area and Gyunabe is origin in Kanto(east) area of Japan.
Raw egg
Japanese people normally eat Sukiyaki with raw egg. It is because Sukiyaki is kind of strong taste and raw egg can soften the taste.
However, it is possible only in Japan because eggs are so flesh and we can eat any eggs with without boil or grill.
If you do same in Europe, you cannot get out of WC for few days. Good news is that raw eggs are available in Europe as well,
However, since I am Japanese, I must eat raw egg. I have been looking for possibility for many years and finally I found!
It is eggs you can get in super market in Netherlands called “Blije Kip Biologisch”.
The chicks of the eggs are vaccinated for salmonella.
Please be aware that please try at your own risk! For your information, I have eaten this egg many time but still alive.
Sukiyaki Restaurant
If you want to eat real Sukiyaki in restaurant, it is unbelievable expensive!
You may have to pay EUR 200 for only a few piece of beef!
However, you will not regret, taste is amazing! It will take you to heaven in a minutes.
Cooking
Ingredients
<Seasonings >
Sukiyaki tare(source)
Just mix them in bowl and stair.
Soy source (CN) =200ml
Sugar (honey) = 50 g
Sake (CN) = 200ml
Mirin (Mirin) = 80ml
Foodstuff
<Necessary>
Thin slice Pork (Chicken legs or Beef also ok!)
Chinese cabbage
Spring onion (Normally, white part is used but there is not white one in Europe, green part is also ok)
Shitake(AH)
<Recommended>
Onion
Shirataki (Junbo)
Tofu(CN)
Paksoy
Udon Noodle (CN or AH)
Spinach
Carrot
Fu(CN)
Method
- Cut all vegetables to small pieces.
- Cooking oil on a deep pan, heat the pan with medium.
- Grill meat and sprinkle a spoon of sugar on it.
- Set all vegetables on it (except for Udon) and pour Sukiyaki tare.
Point: adjust the taste with water, if it is only tare, the taste will be so strong.
- Make it boiled and wait until all foodstuff are cooked through.
- Once everything is cooked through, Sukiyaki is prepared!
- Put it through into raw egg (if it is safety egg) , bring it to your mouth.