Sukiyaki!

Sukiyaki is, to put it simply, beef seasoned with sweet and salty sauce. Often other ingredients are added to increase the enjoyment of the meal.  Sukiyaki is cooked hot pot style, usually at the dinner table. We used an electric hotplate, as we do not have a portable gas one (which is preferable). An iron skillet with handles is utilized instead of a nabe cooking pot (a nabe pot is what comes to mind when one thinks of this cooking style). You can buy special sukiyaki pots but a nice deep skillet will work too. Non-stick is fine. The beef, vegetables and simmering sauce are prepared beforehand and placed on the dinner table for diners to add to the pot. You can see that I used shiitake mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, carrot, leek, hakusai (suey choy) and konnyaku (a calorie-free jelly made of yam that absorbs whatever flavour you place it in). Other ingredients I would have liked to include are tofu both fresh and deep fried, shungiku (chrysanthemum leaves) and shimeji mushrooms. My husband desperately wanted to raw egg to dip the cooked meat and vegetables into but the chance of food poisoning is too much. In Japan when sukiyaki is eaten, everyone is given a bowl with a fresh raw egg. When you take something from the pot to eat, you dip it in the beaten egg first. I never did this but my husband insists it is the best way to eat sukiyaki. Oddly enough no one gets food poisoning from raw egg in Japan... The simmering sauce is made from soy sauce, mirin, sake, water and sugar.

Forgive the blurriness of the photo! This is my husband oiling the pan with a bit of beef fat. Now I know that sounds really unhealthy, but it is just a little bit and it gives the sukiyaki a full bodied flavour, so be sure to use some!

Here you can see the beef is lightly fried. A tiny amount of sugar is sprinkled on top of the beef as it fries.

Eventually you add the simmering sauce and then start placing other ingredients on top. Here you can see the hakusai. Once everything is added, you put the lid on and let it simmer until desired doneness. It is really delicious and fun to cook! Sometimes if there is leftover sauce you can add some pre-cooked udon noodles. Steamed rice suits this meal perfectly!

And for dessert...shortbread!