Japan for an Evening

Well, we've finally arrived back in Asia for our Japanese dinner. Morimoto, one of my favorite celebrity chefs, has this amazing cookbook full of wonderful dishes that are a bit intimidating. However, I decided to try one for this special occasion! The recipe I chose for tonight's meal is called Nikujaga, his take on a meat and potatoes stew that is actually typical of Japanese home cooking. Of course, he takes an elegant turn on the dish, and it's interesting that the ingredients are decidedly un-japanese, but the meal as a whole is traditional to Japanese cuisine.

I gathered some shaved beef, mirin, soy sauce, potatoes, carrots, onions, sugar, green beans, yam noodles, lemon zest, and some beef stock (not pictured below).

I had a bunch of pots going on the stove for this one. I had half the mirin, soy sauce and sugar in one pot with a quart of beef stock, and the other half of all those ingredients in another pot with the other quart of beef stock. They both had to come to a boil, and the sugar needed to dissolve. Once that was done, the veggies (except for the green beans) went into one, and the other I brought to a rolling boil, because I was going to use it to flash-cook my shaved beef.

I used some chopsticks to dip each piece of shaved beef into the stock until it had just turned color, and then I transferred it to a plate. There was quite a bit of shaved beef in the package I purchased, so this took a little time, but I kept the cooked meat warm with some foil. Meanwhile, I boiled some salted water in yet another pot to blanch my green beans. It only took about 30 seconds of heat before I drained the beans and doused them in some cold water. Then I got back to dunking my beef into the broth.

Once the veggies had been simmering for about 1/2 an hour, I added the noodles to the mixture and allowed them to cook for about 5 minutes. To plate, each bowl got some noodles, veggies and broth. The shaved beef was draped on top and then a nice, handful of green beans got piled on top of that. Finish it off with some of the reduced beef stock, and some lemon zest, and serve! This was a hearty, delicious meal, and I will definitely keep it in my back pocket for a cold winter's night because it was warmed me from the inside out. Yum!