Gyudon - Beef Bowl

Gyudon, or Beef rice bowl is Japan's answer to the Hamburger. A lunch favorite, there are even chains devoted solely to this single dish.

Ingredients

• 3-4 cups plain steamed japanese rice¹
• 100g beef, thinly sliced across the grain²
• 1 medium yellow onion, sliced paper thin lengthwise
• 2 tbsp corn oil
• 2 green onions, green part only - thinly sliced crosswise (optional)

For the sauce:

• 3 tbsps dark japanese soy sauce
• 3 tbsp mirin³
• 2 tsbp water
• 1 tbsps ginger juice⁴

Preparation

1. Combine soy sauce, mirin, and water in a small bowl.
2. Have your hot cooked rice, bowls, and all other prepped ingredients assembled stove side so that everything will be at arm's reach during the rapid stir frying.
3. Heat a wok or large frying pan over high heat for 30 seconds, add the oil and swirl it around briefly. Add the onions and stir fry 1-2 minutes until soft.
4. Add the beef and continue to stirfry until the meat is mostly not brown, about a minute.
5. Add sauce and continue stirfrying another minute, or until the meat is just cooked. Remove from heat and stir in the green onions and ginger juice.
6. Portion the hot rice into bowls, allowing 1.5 to 2 cups per bowl. Cover the rice with the beef onion mixture, and spoon over a few tbsps of the sauce.
7. Serve immediately. Goes well with Japanese tea.

Notes

1. Any fluffy white rice would work well here, but the recipe is very well suited to japanese rice.
2. Use a tender cut suited to stirfrying such as bavette, flank steak, or flat iron steak. It's important that the beef be very thinly sliced across the grain. Ask your butcher to cut it for you, or put the beef in the freezer for a half hour before slicing to firm it up and make slicing easier. A sharp knife is immensely helpful.
3. Mirin is a japanese sweet cooking alcohol. Amber in color, it adds depth of flavor, a glaze, and sweetness to japanese dishes. We carry it at our store, La Dépense.
4. To make ginger juice, grate ginger finely using a japanese style grater, microplane, or box grater. Gather the grated shreds up and squeeze the juice out of them into a small bowl.

Recipe by Gabriel Bégin

Adapted from a recipe by Shizuo Tsuji