Cook’s notes
A simple but tasty meal cooked with Asian staples. It’s fuss-free but patience is required to cook the beef to tenderness while it soaks up the flavors of the ginger, soy sauce, sake and mirin during the long and slow cooking.
It’s inspired by gyudon and shigureni. As you can imagine, the flavor of the dish is more Japanese than Chinese. Unlike gyudon and shigureni, an uncut slab of beef short plate went into the pot and simmered until tender. Then, the meat was sliced and served over rice.
Make sure to use stewing beef for this dish. While we’re partial to short plate, you may substitute brisket, shank or short ribs.
While braising is the main cooking method employed here, I did brown the meat on all sides before dropping it into a pot and adding the rest of the ingredients. Browning prevented the formation of scum in the broth. As a result, by the time the beef was tender, the braising liquid was clear and free from impurities.
Ingredients
- 600 to 700 grams stewing beef (1.3 to 1.5 pounds) uncut
- 2 tablespoons cooking oil
- 1 three-inch knob ginger sliced
- 4 cups bone broth you may need more
- ⅓ cup Japanese soy sauce
- ⅓ cup sake
- ⅓ cup mirin
- cooked rice to serve
- sliced scallions to garnish
- toasted sesame seeds to garnish
Instructions
- Pat the beef dry with a kitchen towel.
- Heat the cooking oil in a shallow pan and brown the beef on all sides.
- Scoop out the beef, transfer to a thick-bottomed pot, add the ginger, and pour in the broth, soy sauce, sake and mirin.
- Bring to the boil, set the heat to low, cover the pot and braised the beef until tender.
- Ladle cooked rice into bowls.
- Scoop out the beef, lay on a cutting board and slice.
- Arrange beef slices over the rice, and sprinkle in scallions and sesame seeds.
- Optionally, drizzle some of the braising liquid around the rice before serving.
Herb-crusted cream cheese spread
