Gyudon

Gyudon, the Japanese beef bowl, gets its flavor from two techniques most recipes skip: browning the onions at moderate heat and reducing the sauce uncovered. The beef is never seared. It goes into the simmering warishita raw, and the marbled fat renders into the sauce. This version uses real dashi steeped from kombu and katsuobushi, with hon-mirin and sake in the sauce and an onsen tamago on top made in nothing more than a pot of hot water. Developed from eighteen videos and about twelve thousand comments on why homemade gyudon tastes wrong.

• Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

• Cook Time 30 minutes minutes

• Total Time 50 minutes minutes

• Servings 4 servings

• Calories 850kcal

• Ingredients

  • 2 cups Japanese short-grain rice Rinse until the water runs clear. Cook at a 1:1.1 rice to water ratio or to your rice cooker's line.
  • 1 piece kombu A 2-inch strip in the cooking water for background umami, removed before serving.

The Beef

1 lb well-marbled beef Sliced paper-thin against the grain. Thin-shaved ribeye or cheesesteak slices, or fatty short-plate (bara).

The Onion

1 large yellow onion Cut pole to pole into ¼-inch slices, not rings.
1 teaspoon vegetable oil Canola or any neutral oil.

The Dashi

4 cups water
1 piece kombu A 4-inch by 4-inch piece. Wipe with a damp cloth and leave the white powder on.
2 cups katsuobushi Packed. Makes 1 liter of dashi; this recipe uses ¾ cup.

The Sauce (Warishita)

2 tablespoon sake Drinking sake, not cooking sake.
¼ cup mirin Hon-mirin is best. Aji-mirin is the cheaper fallback.
¾ cup dashi From the batch above, or Hondashi granules stirred into hot water.
¼ cup soy sauce Regular Japanese soy sauce, not low-sodium.
1 ½ tablespoon granulated sugar
1 teaspoon fresh ginger Grated.

The Egg

4 eggs One per bowl. Use pasteurized in-shell eggs for a raw or onsen topping.

To Finish

beni shoga
scallions Thinly sliced.
shichimi togarashi
toasted sesame seeds

US Customary - Metric Instructions Start the Rice

Rinse the rice until the water runs clear, then cook it in a rice cooker or on the stovetop at a 1:1.1 rice to water ratio. Keep it hot. This runs in parallel with everything below. For background umami, add a 2-inch strip of kombu to the cooking water and pull it out before serving.

Slice the Beef

If you bought pre-sliced hotpot, shabu-shabu, or sukiyaki beef, thaw it just enough to separate the sheets. Working from a block, freeze it 1 to 2 hours until firm but not solid, then slice as thin as you can against the grain.

Make the Onsen Egg

Bring 7 ½ cups of water to a boil in a large pot, turn off the heat, and stir in 1 ½ cups of cold water. Lower in 3 to 4 eggs straight from the refrigerator, cover the pot, and wait 12 minutes. Move them to cold water right away so they stop cooking.
Treat the first batch as a calibration run and pull one egg at 10 to 11 minutes to check, since pot, egg count, and water volume all shift the timing. Keep the 5 to 1 ratio of boiling to cold water when you scale, so two eggs get 5 cups boiling plus 1 cup cold. To use a raw egg at serving instead, skip this step and buy pasteurized in-shell eggs.

Make the Dashi

Wipe the kombu with a damp cloth and leave the white powder in place. Drop it into 1 liter of cold water in the saucier over medium-low heat. The moment small bubbles start rising, just before it simmers, pull the kombu out. Do not let it boil.
Turn off the heat and add the katsuobushi. Let it steep 2 minutes. Do not stir, which clouds the broth.
Once the flakes have sunk, pour the dashi through a fine mesh strainer. Do not press the flakes, which turns the stock bitter, and do not let them sit past 4 minutes, which turns it fishy. This recipe uses ¾ cup. Cool the rest and refrigerate it covered for up to 3 days.
For the shortcut version, stir Hondashi granules into hot water following the package.

Brown the Onions and Build the Sauce

Set a wide, heavy pan or saucier over medium to medium-low heat. Add the oil and the onions, spread in a single layer. Cook, stirring every couple of minutes, until they soften and turn a deep, even golden brown, about 12 to 18 minutes. This is deeper than golden edges but short of full caramelization, and it drives the onion's water off before the sauce goes in.
Pour in the sake and mirin. Simmer at moderate heat until the sharp alcohol smell is gone and the liquid reduces by about half, about 2 to 3 minutes. Reducing them alone strips more raw alcohol than adding everything at once, and the mirin sugars concentrate into a second gentle browning.
Add the dashi and soy sauce, then the sugar and grated ginger. Stir until the sugar dissolves and bring it to a gentle simmer.

Simmer the Beef and Reduce

Add the sliced beef, spreading the pieces so they separate in the liquid. Simmer gently just until the beef loses its pink, about 1 to 2 minutes. Do not sear it and do not over-simmer, because thin beef toughens and dries when it cooks too long. Skim off the foam and any oil that pools on the surface.
Simmer uncovered and resist the urge to stir. Spoon the sauce over the beef every minute or so, which bastes the slices and keeps them from shredding. Let it reduce until the sauce coats the beef and onions and pools over the rice without flooding the bowl, about 4 to 6 minutes. Taste it before you call it done, since reducing concentrates salt.

Assemble

Spoon hot rice into each bowl, then the beef, onions, and sauce over the top, adding extra sauce if you like a wetter bowl. Top each bowl with an egg, then finish with beni shoga, scallions, shichimi togarashi, and toasted sesame seeds.