Hello! Hi everyone, Wesley here. Today we're diving back into our series dedicated to Japanese comfort food classics with what I would consider to be a relatively quick and easy one pot meal known as gyudon. For those unfamiliar, gyudon is a Japanese beef and rice bowl consisting of thinly sliced pieces of beef and onion, slow simmered in an umami forward dashi broth, and combined most iconically with soy sauce and mirin, then served over rice. The result is a mildly sweet, savory and hearty rice bowl that I personally find to be ideal for a quick Monday night meal that scales well for a crowd.
Perhaps the one and only tricky part of this entire dish however, is the slice to our beef, which very specifically must be sliced razor thin in order for it to slow simmer and cook properly. For those that have planned ahead well, you may purchase beef chuck that has been sliced with a deli slicer at many asian markets to solve this challenge. If you're like me though and...well. forgot. I'll also be taking a dive into my favorite freezer trick to achieving razor thin slices as well. Hope you try it.
Serves 2-3
INGREDIENTS
4 cloves garlic
1 inch (about 1 tbsp) ginger
3 green onions
1/2 medium white onion
8 oz steak (chuck, skirt, ribeye, or similar)
6 dry anchovy
1 sheet kombu
furikake
1 egg yolk
INGREDIENTS (sauce)
4 tbsp low sodium soy sauce (or 1 tbsp full sodium soy sauce)
2 tbsp mirin
2 tbsp sake
1 tbsp brown sugar
PREP
CRUSH and mince the garlic, set aside
MINCE the ginger, set aside
SEPARATE the whites and greens of the green onions, then slice thinly on a bias and set aside
SLICE the onion into strips, set aside
FREEZE the steak, then slice thinly against the grain
ON THE STOVE
ADD 2 cups water into a wok with the anchovy and kombu, then let simmer for 20 minutes before removing
SKIM the scum off of the top of the dashi stock, then add the garlic, ginger, sauce, and onion
ADD the steak on top laying as flat as possible, then bring to a simmer
COVER and let simmer for 20-30 minutes, then remove and simmer for an additional 5 minutes
SERVE over rice and finish with green onions, furikake, and egg yolk