Sukiyaki

It's pronounced "ski-yaki" with a silent "u".  This is one of Muzz's favorite dishes to cook for a group, but not too large of a group - maybe 8 people maximum.  It's the kind of meal that you cook at the table, and it literally means "cook what you like" (yaki means "cook" and ski means "like").  And we like meat and vegetables!

You'll need a hot plate with a cast iron pan to put in the middle of the table (Muzz insists that it must be cast iron!).  You will also need some platters to arrange the meat and vegatables that you want to cook.  A pot of hot rice, soy sauce, mirin or sake, sugar, and fish stock.  Muzz always offers everyone a raw egg to enjoy with their sukiyaki, but those eggs always go straight back into the carton at the end of dinner because noone wants a raw egg.  One of them ended up on the floor last week as I was putting them back in the carton after dinner - yuck, what a mess!  Muzz, skip the raw eggs!

SUKIYAKI:

Meat such as ribeye, 1 to 2 pounds
Vegetables, for example:
   green onion, several bunches
   chinese (napa) cabbage, 1/2 to 1 head
   bok choy, several
   any kind of mushrooms, 1/2 to 1 pound
   bamboo shoots, 1 or 2
   tofu, 1 or 2 squares
   konnyaku noodles (wikipedia says it's made out of a kind of starchy root vegetable)
Raw eggs hahaha
A pot of rice
Soy sauce
Sake or mirin (cooking sake with sugar added)
Sugar
Fish stock (you can get it in a can)
A piece of beef fat "suet"

First, cook your rice.  If you have a rice cooker, that will keep it nice and hot.

You want your meat to be sliced very thin, like 1/16 inch, which is even thinner than 1/8 inch.  Muzz used to be able to get the butcher to slice it that way by asking for it "Del Monico style".  Now she slices it herself by freezing the meat slightly and then slicing it with a very sharp knife.  Arrange the slices on platters.

The vegetables just need to be prepared for cooking:
   cut the roots off the green onions and cut to 2-4 inch lengths;
   cut the core out of the cabbage and cut into 1-inch wide strips;
   cut the end off the bok choy so the leaves come apart;
   slice the mushrooms, or not;
   slice the bamboo shoots;
   cut the tofu into 1-inch squares;
   rinse the konnyaku;
Arrange the vegetables on the platters.

Put the raw eggs in a bowl, don't break them!

When it is time for dinner, the platters of meat and vegetables come to the table, along with the bowl of raw eggs.  The soy sauce, sake, sugar and fish stock are on the table next to the cooking pan, which is in the middle of the table, within reach of everyone.  Turn the pan on, and grease it with the peice of beef fat "suet".  Take the suet out of the pan when it is greased up.

Now you can start putting some of the meat into the pan, along with some vegetables, a nice variety.  When the pan is full, add some soy sauce, sake or mirin, a little sugar, and fish stock, just a little spoon of sugar at a time, to taste.  If you are using mirin, be careful when adding the sugar because mirin is already sweet.  These ingredients become a kind of a cooking liquid for the food to cook in, and should be pretty much boiling or simmering, maybe medium high heat.  The proportions of soy sauce, fish stock and mirin depends on your taste, but maybe start with about 1/3 of each, or maybe a tiny bit more of the fish stock.

The food will cook fast, and then everyone can start eating.  Everyone should have a bowl of rice and some chopsticks.  You take what you want out of the pan with your chopsticks and put it on top of your rice.  Add more meat and vegetables (with your chopsticks!) to the pan as the food cooks.  You just keep eating and cooking!  As the liquid goes down, you can add more soy sauce, sake, sugar and fish stock.

You won't realize how much food you're eating, and you'll soon be sooo full!!!!!  Mmmmm!!  Sukiyaki is good good good!!!

MUZZ'S TWO CENTS:

By the way, you don't have to eat rice with sukiyaki to start.   A real pro will not fill themselves with rice; they eat the real stuff dipping every bite in the raw egg.    After a while they may serve themselves some rice.   The way one does it is, break an egg in a bowl. Stir it up with chop sticks.  Then you get what you want from the pot into the egg and eat.   This way, you look forward to the noodles at the end.     Love   Muzz