A Favorite Recipe: Japanese Sukiyaki

Sukiyaki requires little cooking skill, so is ideal for younger diners -- all you need is fresh ingredients, a cast iron skillet and a tabletop cooker.

Preparation method

Also essential is thinly sliced (for either shabu shabu or sukiyaki) wagyu beef. If you can't get sliced, place in the freezer, and while partially frozen, slice into thin slices using a sharp knife.

For vegetables, you need shallots (lots as they wilt to nothing) chopped into 1" lengths, Chinese cabbage, chopped into similar size, fresh shiitake mushrooms, trimmed of stems and also some firm tofu cut into cubes. Also essential is beef suet or uneuphemistically, a big lump of beef fat. You can also add other mushrooms, like enoki, shimeji etc. and shirataki (noodles made from konnyaku root), white onion moons, and other greens like watercress or chrysanthemum leaves, bok choy, etc. and arrange on a big platter so everyone can bung into the skillet whatever they desire.

For the sukiyaki sauce, mix 1 cup of soy sauce and 1 cup of mirin with 8 tablespoons of sugar and bring to boil to dissolve sugar. This is called Warishita. Also make up another sauce called Tamazake which is equal amounts of sake and water.

Heat the skillet and line with suet and cook the beef slices first, add little of the Warishita sauce and then veges/tofu. If it becomes dry, add the Tamazake to prevent burning. When ready, everyone serves themselves, dipping into the raw egg before eating.

Continue to add ingredients and sauce until sated. if there are some leftovers, keep for the next day and add rice or udon for a quick stir fry.