Lucky, Lucky - Sukiyaki

So, once upon a time, in a previous chapter of my life, I was employed by a distance learning provider. I like to tease that "I wasn't a teacher, I just played one on TV." It was, by far, one of the best jobs I've ever had. We had an amazingly talented, amazingly interesting and amazingly fun group of wildly diverse colleagues. Many of whom, I have the honor of being friends with to this day (some 20 {gasp!}  years later) The purpose of the service was to provide specialized courses such as astronomy, marine science, physics, foreign languages (from Spanish and Latin to German and Japanese), and my area of expertise, the social sciences of psychology and sociology, to smaller, rural schools who might not be able to provide these courses for a small number of students. In many cases, our distant sites had one single student enrolled in a particular subject. 
I was so fortunate to work with all of the talented folks there. One of the best parts was being able to learn so much about a wide variety of topics. It was like a dream come true to have content experts in a variety of world cultures at my disposal. Best of all, each foreign language course would feature foods of their countries as part of the cultural instruction for the students.  The teaching assistant for the Japanese course was (and still is) a beautiful, native of Japan who looked like a Disney princess. She is the most gracious person I have ever met in my entire life. I would tease her that she probably was awakened by little birds who also helped her dress and coif her hair each morning. She is just that perfect. An excellent cook, she brought many delicious foods to our office pot lucks. So, it was no surprise when she prepared her authentic Japanese cuisine as part of a lesson, the whole crew would wait in anxious anticipation until the "On-Air" light would go out and then scramble to get a small sample of whatever tasty thing she had whipped up.  This is just one of those delightful dishes.


Hiroko's Traditional Sukiyaki

• 1 lb boneless beef ribeye,  reasonably well-marbled with fat and sliced paper thin (see note below)
• 1/2 Cup Soy Sauce, 4 Tbsp sugar, 2 Tbsp Rice Wine (Sake) - mixed well until sugar dissolves 
• 5-6 shiitake mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
• 1 large white onion, peeled and sliced into 1/4 slices
• 1 can sliced bamboo shoots
• 1 can sliced water chestnuts
• 1 package hard tofu, cut into bite sized pieces (optional)
• 1/3 large Napa cabbage, leaves stacked and chopped crosswise into quarters
• 1 large bunch fresh spinach, washed well with larger woody stems removed
• 1 bunch green onions, cleaned and cut into 3 in long pieces

1. In a very large open skillet, saute beef over medium heat. stir around pan until there is very little pink color left.
2. Add sauce and let pan return to a rather brisk simmer.
3. The next steps will be very repetitive - add each ingredient, submerge in sauce, allow to cook down ~  Push meat to one side of skillet, then: 
4. Add shiitake mushrooms and submerge in the sauce. Cook until mushrooms begin to release their liquid and shrink a bit.
5. Add white onion and submerge in the sauce. Continue cooking until onion has become brown from soaking up the sauce and have become soft.
6. Add bamboo shoots and water chestnuts. Make sure all ingredients are dunked in the cooking liquid/sauce.Cook for about 5 minutes. Watch to make sure the liquid doesn't all evaporate. If the sauce begins to boil away, reduce heat.
7. Add tofu, if using.
8. Using the Napa cabbage slices, cover the entire top of the other ingredients in the skillet. This will create a natural cover for the items cooking below and in essence, traps the steam that is created and steams the cabbage at the same time. (Ingenious!) The skillet will look like it is overflowing, but be patient - the steam truly will shrink the cabbage.
9. Once the cabbage volume is reduced, repeat the lid procedure with the spinach ( This will not create such a tight "lid" due to the shape of the spinach, but the process and results will be the same.)  Let the cooking continue until the spinach is cooked and softened..
10. Sprinkle the top of the skillet with the green onion pieces and cook and additional 5-6 minutes.
11. You have to eat sukiyaki with good freshly cooked white rice. Serve the meat and veggies over the rice and ladle on some of the delicious rich broth.

Notes: 

• Very few meat cutters are actual butchers these days, so having the folks at the meat counter cut the meat paper thin for you might be a no-go. You can cut the meat yourself at home by partially freezing the roast and then shaving off slices with a very sharp knife.  
• Rib-eye can be a bit pricey, but other more value oriented cuts of meat will not provide the same results. The fat that is marbled through the rib-eye will help to create the rich broth and will break down upon cooking to create a super tender result. Keep an eye for when the rib eye goes on sale (many times during the winter holiday season) and buy some for the freezer for use later. 

ハッピークッキング (boy, I hope Google got this right!)

Happy Cooking!

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