Ang Sarap (A Tagalog word for "It's Delicious")

Shabu Shabu

Last day of the Raw Meat Week and this time lets go to Japan and have some Shabu-shabu.

Shabu-shabu is a Japanese variation of hot pot; usually it is served with thinly sliced raw beef, tofu, Chinese cabbages, chrysanthemum leaves, nori, onions, carrots, shiitake mushrooms and enokitake mushrooms. The dish is simply prepared by submerging the thin slices of meat in boiling water and swishing it back and forth. Once meats and vegetables are cooked it is usually dipped in ponzu sauce before consumption. After finishing all the vegetables and meats, the remaining broth is then consumed with rice or served as a soup.

This dish was just lately introduced in Japan. It was in the 20th century when a Shabu-shabu restaurant called “Suehiro” in Osaka was opened. They served a dish which was inspired by the Chinese hot pot called “shuan yang rou”. The name was given by the Suehiro when he served the dish and explaining how the dish is consumed, by swishing the ingredients back and forth in the boiling stock. Shabu-shabu when directly translated means “swish-swish”. It then became really popular in Asia then spread all over the world though “Japantowns” or “Little Tokyo’s”.

I first came across this dish when I was in the Philippines in a restaurant called Healthy Shabu Shabu, that was also the time when I started my addiction with Japanese food where almost every day I ate sushi, donburi’s and this one. A dish which is usually served during winter but can be also enjoyed all year round, that is why we’re having it now so there’s no reason for you not to have some as well. The recipe below is inspired from the recipe of a blogger friend Nami from Just one cookbook, adjusted to what ingredients available from where I am.

Ingredients

800 g sirloin beef, sliced very thinly
1/2 head of Chinese cabbage sliced
1 pack enoki mushrooms or golden needle mushrooms
8 pcs dried shiitake mushrooms, rehydrated
1 small carrot, sliced
1 block firm tofu, cut into cubes
1 spring onions, chopped
3 inch kombu
Seame Sauce (if you cant find one you can make at home ingredients below)
Ponzu Sauce (if you cant find one you can make at home ingredients below) Ingredients (Sesame Sauce)

Ingredients (Sesame Sauce)

3 tbsp white sesame seeds, lightly toasted
1/2 cup dashi
4 tsp sake
1/2 tbsp mirin
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp sugar
1 garlic clove, minced

Ingredients (Ponzu Sauce)

juice from 1 lemon
3 tsp shoyu
3 tsp mirin

Method

1. Prepare ponzu sauce by mixing all ponzu sauce ingredients, set aside.
2. Prepare Sesame sauce, first place lightly toasted sesame seeds on a food processor and process until it become a fine powder. Place in a mixing bowl and mix with other ponzu sauce ingredients, set aside.
3. Pour water in a casserole or clay pot up to two-thirds full, place kombu and soak for at least 30 minutes.
4. Place beef on a serving plate then serve together with a bowl of rice for each person and dipping sauces.
5. Place pot in the kitchen stove and bring water to a boil, just before water boils remove the kombu.
6. Bring the water to a boil then add the cabbage, spring onions, carrots, mushrooms and tofu, then turn heat off.
7. Place a portable gas burner in a middle of the table, then place the pot on top.
8. Now this is the interactive part each person will have to cook their own beef by using chopsticks and dipping them into the boiling broth by swishing it gently back and forth. Once cooked they can dip it on the dipping sauces.