Gyudon (Beef Rice Bowl)
Serves 4
This dish comes together in mere minutes, and is savory, homey, and just delicious. It’s one of my all-time favorites. The egg is optional, but makes the dish a very filling and complete meal.
It’s very difficult to slice beef thin enough for this sort of dish at home. If you ask your butcher, they can probably slice some for you — tell them to cut it as for a Philly Cheese Steak. But you can get excellent-quality beef sliced to a perfect thinness and frozen at most Korean or Japanese markets (where you’ll also be able to get better rice and soy sauce, as well as the pickled red ginger, mirin, dashi powder — all staples of the Japanese kitchen). This by far the better option.
Ingredients #
- 1 medium white onion, sliced
- 2 scallions, sliced finely
- 1 cup dashi (made with instant dashi powder)
- 2 tbsp sake
- 4 tbsp mirin
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 4 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 1/2 lbs thinly sliced beef (chuck or ribeye)
- 2 tbsp pickled red ginger (beni shoga)
- 4 soft-cooked or poached eggs (optional)
- Japanese short-grain rice
Instructions #
Start the rice in a rice booker. About 20 minutes before it’s done, start the gyudon.
Heat a large frying pan over medium high heat and add the dashi, sake, sugar, mirin, and soy sauce.
Cover the lid and bring the sauce to boil. Once the sauce is boiling, add the sliced onions and spread them out. Cover to cook until tender (if you don’t cover, the sauce will evaporate, so make sure you cover the lid). When the onion is tender, add the beef and cook until no longer pink. Skim the foam or fat with a fine mesh sieve.
Serve the meat and sauce over steamed rice.
Top with chopped green onion and pickled red ginger. If you like to add an egg, serve with Onsen Tamago. Alternatively, you can pour beaten egg over the meat when it’s almost finished cooking in the pan.