Sukiyaki

Today the Faculty of Engineering had one of its marathon faculty meetings again, unfortunately not to announce salary increases or bonuses, but to dispense information to it's academic staff. So I was among the 70-80+ people trapped there for about 3 hours. The meeting started at a good 2pm, but it dragged on as usual, to a ridiculous 6pm.

While I was there in physical form, my mind had raced home. I was cracking my head on what to cook as Greg needed dinner at 7pm to be able to start working at 7.30pm.

So this is one of those times, when a one-pot cooking, instant meal comes to the rescue. Luckily, we have very thinly sliced beef from Ta Kiong and they did not take long to defrost.

Nabemono

is basically the Japanese version of one-pot cookery, which is really popular during winter. Of all the different versions, the two famous Nabemono we are accustomed have to be Sukiyaki and Shabu Shabu.

Sukiyaki is perhaps one of Japan's most classic one-pot dish. The dish mainly consists of paper thin beef and vegetables such as mushrooms, chinese cabbage and a raw beaten egg dip. And ingredients are normally cooked in a shallow iron skillet (preferrably Japanese ones) over an electric hot plate or a table top gas stove on the table. A small portion of the beef is lightly cooked and a small quantity of the rest of the ingredients and little stock are added and to be refilled as the meal progresses.

(Serves 2-4 persons)

200gm of paper thin beef slices

2tbsp of corn oil

1 no of piece of tofu, cut to cubes

8 no of pieces of fresh or dried shitake mushrooms, stem off and cut a cross on top of each

1 no of onion, sliced to rings

1 no of small baby chinese cabage

2 no of leeks, cut to finger lengths

some enoki mushrooms

2 no of eggs

Dashi stock:

200gm of water

1 tbsp of Dashi Granules

2 tbsp of sake

2 tbsp of Japanese soy sauce

1 tbsp of sugar

1) Clean and prepare all ingredients and lay nicely on clean plates, especially if you are getting the guests to cook by themselves.

2) Prepare stock by mixing dashi ingredients together.

3) Heat skillet with some oil. Lay beef in single layer to very lightly sear it, then scoop out. I cheated by doing the whole lot so I scooped out the meat first to prevent overcooking. Then proceed to step 4, 5 and 6. If you are doing the table cooking style, add small portion of beef followed by step 4.

4) Lay all ingredients nicely in the frying pan. Add stock. Bring to boil and simmer for a little till all ingredients are cooked.

5) Add beef back to skillet and also tofu. Bring to quick boil.

6) Bring the whole pot onto the table and eat with rice and raw egg beaten up. If you are cooking over fire on the table top gas stove, continue with the above till all ingredients run out.