Beef Shabu-Shabu (Japanese Hot Pot)
Cuisine: Japanese
Region: 日本各地
Servings: 4人分
Beef Shabu-Shabu (Japanese Hot Pot) is a home-style meat dish. If the water boils hard, the meat gets tough. Ingredients and step-by-step instructions are below, with notes for home cooking.
Ingredients
- Beef (shabu-shabu cut, such as chuck eye roll), 400 g
- Napa cabbage, 1/4 head
- Shungiku (chrysanthemum greens), 1 bunch
- Japanese leek (naganegi), 1
- Fresh shiitake mushrooms, 4
- Enoki mushrooms, 1 pack
- Silken tofu, 1 block
- Water, 2 L
- Kombu, 10 g
- [Sesame sauce] White sesame paste, 4 tbsp
- [Sesame sauce] Soy sauce, 2 tbsp
- [Sesame sauce] Sugar, 1 tbsp
- [Sesame sauce] Vinegar, 1 tbsp
- [Sesame sauce] Dashi or hot water, 3 tbsp
- Ponzu, as needed
- Momiji oroshi (grated daikon with chili) and asatsuki chives (thinly sliced), as needed
Steps
- Put the water and kombu in a clay pot and let it sit for at least 30 minutes to make kombu dashi.
- Slice the cabbage stems at an angle and cut the leaves into large pieces. Pick the shungiku leaves and discard the tough stems, cut the leek on the diagonal, remove the shiitake stems and score decorative cuts in the caps, and trim and separate the enoki. Cut the tofu into 8 pieces.
- [Sesame sauce] Add the sugar, soy sauce and vinegar to the sesame paste one at a time, mixing well after each, then thin with dashi to the consistency you like. Set out in small bowls along with the ponzu, momiji oroshi and chives.
- Spread the beef slices one by one on a large platter. Taking them out of the fridge 10 minutes before eating helps them cook to a nice color.
- Set the clay pot over medium heat and remove the kombu just before it boils. Add the ingredients that take longer to cook first, such as the cabbage stems, shiitake and leek, and add the tofu as well.
- Keep the heat at a gentle simmer. Pick up one slice of beef with chopsticks, dip it into the broth and swish it 2–3 times. Lift it out while it is still slightly pink and eat it with the sauce of your choice.
- Add the shungiku and cabbage leaves just before eating and cook them briefly. Skim off any scum that rises, often.
- To finish, add udon to the broth left in the pot, or rice and beaten egg to make a rice porridge. Season with a little salt and soy sauce.
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Notes
If the water boils hard, the meat gets tough. Keeping it at a gentle bubble (80–90°C) is the secret to tender results.
If you make it with pork (buta-shabu), cook it thoroughly until no pink remains.
Use the sesame sauce with the meat and the ponzu with the vegetables, and you won't tire of it to the end.
The leftover kombu dashi makes a flavorful stock. Use it for the next day's miso soup or udon.
Origin and history
Shabu-shabu is a hot pot dish in which thinly sliced meat is swished through simmering kombu dashi and eaten with sesame sauce or ponzu. The name is said to come from the way the meat moves in the water, which resembles the "shabu-shabu" swishing sound of rinsing cloth in a tub.
It was inspired by the Beijing mutton hot pot shuan yangrou. After the war, a version adapted for Japanese tastes using beef was served under the name "shabu-shabu" at a beef restaurant in Osaka in the early 1950s, and from there it spread nationwide.
Because the meat cooks in moments, you can enjoy its tenderness as is, and the fat drips into the broth so it tastes light. Today it is a household staple in many forms, including pork shabu, chicken shabu, yellowtail shabu and the summer cold shabu salad.