Gyudon
Gyudon
Gyudon is Japan's most popular quick weekday meal, a bowl of hot steamed rice topped with thinly sliced beef and soft, sweet onions simmered together in a light sauce of dashi, soy sauce and mirin. The name translates simply as beef bowl, and it delivers exactly what that description promises: a deeply satisfying, uncomplicated combination that can be prepared in under fifteen minutes and that consistently provides the kind of comfort that a meal eaten in a hurry rarely achieves. Gyudon chains like Yoshinoya and Matsuya are fixtures of Japanese city life, but the homemade version is easy to produce and noticeably better.
The key to good gyudon is the beef: it should be sliced paper-thin, which allows it to cook in seconds and soak up the seasoning rapidly. Japanese butchers routinely produce this cut, known as gyudon-you or usugiri, and it is also available in frozen form from Japanese grocery stores. The sauce should be made with proper dashi rather than water, even a quick one made from Hondashi granules is significantly better than plain water, and the ratio of soy to mirin determines the flavour balance. A little sake adds depth and removes any remaining meatiness from the broth.
The equipment required is minimal. A medium saucepan or skillet, a rice cooker or regular pot for the rice, and a set of donburi rice bowls for serving are sufficient. The donburi bowl matters more than it might seem, its depth keeps the rice warm under the topping and its wide mouth allows the ingredients to be arranged properly.
A shichimi togarashi chilli blend on the side is the standard finishing touch in Japan.
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Serve in our donburi bowls and use a quality saucepan for the broth.
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