Gyudon, my favorite one-pot wonder. It's sweet, savory, tasty, and did I mention a snap to make? It's thinly sliced beef and onions that were simmered in a broth of mirin, soy sauce, and dashi stock (a Japanese broth made with dried bonito fish flakes and konbu seaweed) and topped onto bowls of freshly steamed, hot white rice. The onions are just so sweet and softens as it soaks up all the flavors of the broth.
Even though I love food and dream of spending hours in the kitchen just baking and cooking, I can't afford to as a college student. Thank goodness I am on break now, but one thing that is very important to me while going to college is that I must make my own food (because NYC lunch prices scare me ... like $7 for a small tuna salad sandwich?) even if it sometimes means sloppily-put-together peanut butter and jam sandwiches for lunch or canned chicken noodle soup because I barely even have time to sleep! The food I make mustn't be fussy and come together quick like magic and has to taste good! And that's why I am in love with this recipe. It's everything I need. :)
Gyudon is eaten with white rice and I still prefer white rice actually and I say that because today I ate this with this new blend of grains I got from a Korean supermarket. It's very hearty and wholesome, with brown rice, sticky brown rice, black-eyed peas, kidney beans, glutinous black rice and adzuki beans. Very healthy, right? I love eating right and healthy but the flavors of the grains had a competition with the beef and onion, so white rice with gyudon from now on!
I should note that a common condiment for gyudon is benishoga, which is pickled ginger tinted red, found in most Asian supermarkets. I am not a fan of ginger, so I omitted this.
Gyudon (Japanese Beef Bowl)
Adapted from Japanese Food @ About.com
Yield: 4 Servings
For the soy sauce, I used a combination of light soy sauce and chicken soy sauce marinade, both found also in Asian supermarkets. The chicken marinade soy sauce is sweet and enhances the the broth wonderfully.
Ingredients
- 4 cups steamed hot white rice
- 1 pound thinly sliced beef
- 1 large onion, sliced thinly
- 1 1/3 cup dashi stock, or 1 1/3 cups water with 1/2 tsp dashi granules*
- 5 tbsp light soy sauce
- 3 tbsp mirin*
- 2 tbsps sugar
- 1 tsp sake, optional
- benishoga (red ginger) for topping, optional*
* = found in Asian supermarkets
In a pot, combine the dashi soup, soy sauce, sugar, mirin, sake and onion. Bring to a simmer, cooking the onion for a few minutes. Add the beef to the pot and simmer for a few minutes until cooked through and no longer pink and the onion softens, stirring once in a while. Distribute the beef and onion on top of bowls of hot steamed rice. Spoon sauce over the gyudon and garnish with benishoga if using and serve immediately.
