Prep: 10

Cook: 10

Total: 20

Servings: 3 people

Course: Appetizer

Cuisine: Fusion

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Connie’s notes

You’ll find a lot of versions of meat-wrapped asparagus cooked in teriyaki (or similar) sauce on the web. In many of them, strips of beef (cut like bacon rashers) are wound around the asparagus.

For this recipe, I used sukiyaki-cut beef, sliced like ham but thinner, to make wrapping easier and to make sure that the beef cooks in only a few minutes.

Ginger is not a traditional component of teriyaki sauce, but it does give this dish a subtle heat that makes it even more appetizing.

Ingredients

200 grams baby asparagus (7 oz)
250 grams sukiyaki-cut beef (8.8 oz)
2 tablespoons potato starch
2 tablespoons sake
2 tablespoons mirin
2 tablespoons light soy sauce
½ teaspoon grated ginger optional
cooking oil for frying
1 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds

Instructions

Rinse and wipe dry the baby asparagus.
Place a slice of sukiyaki-cut beef flat on your work surface. Place three pieces of baby asparagus on the edge near you. Roll the beef carefully (don’t tear them with heavy hands!) to seal the asparagus. Repeat until all the asparagus have been wrapped or until there are no beef slices left to wrap them with.
Arrange the beef-wrapped asparagus side by side in a single layer.
Place one tablespoon of potato starch in a strainer. Hold the strainer above the leftmost wrapped asparagus and, while moving the strainer slowly towards the right, tap gently. Turn the beef-wrapped asparagus over. Repeat the flouring procedure with the remaining potato starch.
Heat enough cooking oil in a pan to reach a depth of one-fourth inch. Fry the beef-wrapped asparagus in batches of four or five. DO NOT overcook them. Just brown and sear then scoop out and move to a plate.
Make the teriyaki sauce. Mix together the sake, mirin, soy sauce, and the optional ginger, if using. Pour into the pan.
Arrange the fried beef-wrapped asparagus in the pan in a single layer. Cook over high heat, rolling them in the sauce, until the meat has soaked up all the sauce.
Transfer the beef-wrapped asparagus to a plate. Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds and serve at once.