Sukiyaki with Beef and Salmon

There are many classic and traditional recipes for sukiyaki. This is not one of them. I cook everything together because I have 4-year-old twins and doing things in courses, well, not going to happen anytime soon. Also, I use both beef and salmon because we've got a lot of different preferences in the family and this dish is too good for anyone to have to compromise. And also, it tastes really good this way.

Serves 6-8 people

Very loosely adapted (as in I've been making this for over 15 years and things have evolved a bit) from Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art, Shizo Tsuji

Ingredients:

For the broth
3/4 cup sake (use Chinese rice wine if you can't find sake)
3/4 cup soy sauce
3 Tbsps sugar
1/2 cup mirin

6 cups dashi (or water)

three or four pieces of the marbled beef
two small pieces of kombu
6-7 dried shitake mushrooms, broken into pieces

for garnishes and dressing up your bowl: one egg for each person, lemon wedges, ground red pepper

For the stew
1 1/2 pounds thin sliced marbled beef (buy this pre-sliced from an Asian grocery store if possible. If not, it is easier to get very thin slices of meat if you cut it when it is half frozen, it should be a well marbled piece of meat.)
1 pound salmon, cut into inch cubes
3 bunches of green scallions, whites only, cut into 2 inch pieces, or leave them long
1 block soft tofu, cut into 1 inch cubes (traditional recipes call for grilled tofu, but I never use that)
10 fresh shitake mushrooms
You want some kind of greens. If you can find it, the best combination with the beef is chrysanthemum leaves. Watercress is also very good. Other options are flat-leaf spinach, Chinese broccoli, Chinese cabbage, baby bok choy, or what ever else you like. Wash greens well and chop into large pieces.
2 cups bean sprouts
four packages udon
3 bundles of mung-bean noodles, soaked in water to soften

You can really put just about anything in that you like. Some other nice options are bamboo shoots (cut into fine strips) and enoki mushrooms.

If you can, you want to cook sukiyaki in an electric skillet at the table in front of everyone. And if you are serving grown ups and not 4-year-olds with balance issues, you can even let them serve themselves straight out the pot. This is kind of fun because you can have the exact morsels that you want to eat, and no one can tell how much you are eating.

It is also pretty to set up the table with all the different ingredients arranged on platters.

Wash the salmon cubes in salt water and put them on ice.

Arrange the meat on a platter.

Arrange the veggies, mushrooms, tofu and noodles on platters.

About 45 minutes before you want to eat, turn the skillet on high and toss in three or four pieces of the beef. When it is brown and fat is coming out, add the sugar and let it coat the beef and blend with the fat and beef. Add the soy sauce, sake and mirin. Allow to cook for a few minutes. Add 4 cups of the dashi, or enough to have about 2 inches of liquid in the pan. Add the kombu and dried mushrooms. Bring it to a boil and then turn it down to a fast simmer. Allow it to simmer for 15 minutes. Take out and discard the beef. Add the tofu. Simmer another 15 minutes.

Set the table with soup bowls and smaller bowls for dipping sauce. Put an egg next to each dipping bowl.

Arrange some the mushrooms, scallions, bean sprouts and the noodles in their own groups in the pan. There may be leftovers on the platters. This is fine, you can add them for round number two. Cook for a few minutes until the noodles are getting soft. Call everyone to the table. When everyone is seated. Add the salmon and the greens. Everything gets its own section in the pan. Don't stir things together.

Layer a few slices of beef over the noodles or the bean sprouts, and let them cook to the individual's desired doneness.

Let the first batch cook till everything is soft, about 3-5 minutes. Dish out noodles first then put some meat and veggies on top. Spoon in a little broth. (Or let people serve themselves from the cooking pot).

The raw egg gets cracked into the small bowl. Beat it lightly so the yolk is released. People can dip their meat in egg before they eat it. Truth be told, I like to just crack the egg on top of my whole bowl and then mix it with everything so it flavors the whole broth. (Of course, if this grosses you out, you can just skip the whole egg part, but you are missing out.)

Sprinkle with ground red pepper or squeeze lemon juice on top as you like.

When everyone has had a first serving, add the rest of the ingredients and let them cook while you eat the first batch. If the broth is getting low add more dashi as you need it. If it is igetting thin add a bit more say sauce, but go slow (a capful at a time) as you can over do it.