

Boil the sake and mirin first to let the alcohol evaporate, then add sugar and soy sauce until the sugar is completely dissolved. I prefer to keep them separate so that the sukiyaki sauce lasts longer in the refrigerator (water/dashi in the sauce will not keep long). Some recipes already include kombu dashi in the sauce while others don’t. It’s very simple to make with just 4 ingredients: soy sauce, sake, mirin, and sugar. The Kanto-style sukiyaki needs warishita (割り下), the sukiyaki sauce.

Potato peeler meaning how to#
Follow my directions and tricks on How To Slice Meat. If you can’t find pre-sliced beef, you can try slicing the ribeye at your home. If possible, find a well-marbled piece of meat so that the fat of the meat becomes tender when you eat. We do not want chewy meat for the hot pot. Japanese grocery stores have packages of thinly sliced “sukiyaki beef.” They also have “shabu shabu beef” but those are thinner than the ones for sukiyaki, so don’t pick the wrong package. Because of the higher fat content in each slice, you don’t really need a lot of it. Wagyu (beef from cows raised in Japan) is very expensive ($40/lb), so typically each person only enjoys about 120-150 grams of sliced meat. The Japanese like to splurge and enjoy really good quality, well-marbled beef for both sukiyaki and shabu shabu. Unquestionably, beef is the star ingredient for this hot pot, so I recommend using quality meat when making sukiyaki at home. In my recipe below, I use the Kanto-style sukiyaki method because it’s a lot easier for beginner cooks to follow. This is where the nabe bugyo (hot pot magistrate 鍋奉行)’s skills are shown! Therefore, the skill of the person who makes it greatly influences Kansai-style sukiyaki. Since the moisture content in vegetables varies depending on the season, the cook needs to adjust the seasoning accordingly in order to achieve the best flavor. When both sides of the meat are about 80% cooked, we would sprinkle plenty of sugar so that it covers the surface of the meat. Then, sprinkle soy sauce to balance out the flavor.Īfter enjoying a few slices of beef, you would then add vegetables such as napa cabbage. It doesn’t use dashi stock so the Kansai-style sukiyaki doesn’t have much moisture and the flavor is slightly stronger. On the other hand, Kansai-style sukiyaki involves grilling each slice of beef in the cast iron pot. This style of cooking is hugely influenced by the original gyunabe. For my recipe, I used the latter method to avoid marbled beef from getting stuck on the cast-iron pot.Īfter you enjoy a few slices of the beef, you would then simmer the remaining meat and other ingredients in the warishita until tender. Some people grill the beef directly on the greased pot while others cook the beef with a little bit of the sukiyaki sauce.

The sauce is made by boiling soy sauce, sake, mirin, and sugar and diluted with kombu dashi to your liking. It plays an important role in determining the overall taste of the dish (we’ll talk about it later).Īlso, the Kanto version grills the beef in a cast iron pot. The most noteworthy feature of Kanto-style sukiyaki is the warishita (割り下) or sukiyaki sauce. As my mom’s side of the family is from Osaka (Kansai) and my dad’s side is from Tokyo (Kanto), I grew up eating a mix of Kansai and Kanto foods without realizing it.īoth regions enjoy sukiyaki with a beaten egg, but people would cook and enjoy the dish differently. Kanto Style Sukiyakiĭid you know that there are two types of sukiyaki? We have the Kanto-style and the Kansai-style and there are some distinctions between them. Since the two dishes were quite similar, people in the Kanto region started to call their original gyunabe ‘sukiyaki.’ Kansai Style vs. During that time, sukiyaki restaurants in the Kansai (Osaka) region expanded into the Kanto region. When the Great Kanto Earthquake happened in 1923, the gyunabe restaurants in the Kanto (Tokyo) region disappeared. Gyunabe then influenced the sukiyaki culture in the Kanto region.

Gyunabe’s popularity spread from Yokohama, where many foreigners lived, and then became popular in Tokyo. Interestingly, the Kanto region once called their version of sukiyaki gyunabe (牛鍋). The soup broth is rich and bursting with sweet, salty, and savory flavor. We slowly grill or simmer well-marbled beef, alongside vegetables, tofu, and mushrooms in a shallow cast-iron pot. Sukiyaki (すき焼き) is a popular Japanese hot pot dish that we often prepare and serve at the table. How to Eat Sukiyaki the “Authentic” Way.Make Your Own Sukiyaki Sauce (Warishita).
