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Beef Donburi (Gyudon)

Gyudon is probably one of my top 5 favorite foods from Japan. I first had it at a Sukiya chain in Tokyo. We were staying in a hotel in the Shinjuku district near the park! Anyway this stuff is super easy to make and really filling and if you can find good sales on ingredients, it is rather cheap per serving!

INGREDIENTS:

500g/1lb of paper thin sliced beef

1 medium onion (green/spring onion recommended, but i used yellow onion)

Mirin

Dashi broth or powder

Sugar

Soy sauce

Rice

garlic (optional)

3 eggs (optional)

I actually got the beef from Walmart, labeled as stir fry beef strips. They’re not as thin as I would like, but if I had gotten the shabu-shabu cut from Mitsuwa it would have been incredibly expensive. As it was, I think this beef was around $7 for slightly over a pound. Cutting it yourself is not recommended unless you have ultra-sharp knives and a lot of patience, because you DO have to go for as thin shavings as possible.

Spring/green onion bunches are best because you can use the green bits for garnish after you serve it, but I used a yellow onion cut into wedges. If you don’t like onion texture, don’t worry: by the end of cooking they will be soft enough to be almost unnoticeable.

Mirin is a rather expensive ingredient here, but you’ll probably never use it for anything else. I got mine from a regional chain store’s “asian” section, and I noticed that Walmart had it as well. In fact, you can get everything except the Dashi from Walmart if you need to.

Dashi broth is traditionally made by boiling konbu seaweed with bonito flakes, then straining out the solids left over. I couldn’t find either of these so I opted for buying dashi powder from Mitsuwa. You can also find this on Amazon and other online stores. It’s rather cheap, I think my box was around $2.50. It can also be used to make miso soup.

Sugar can be left out if you want to reduce the sugar content of the dish, but I only used a tablespoon and it managed to pull everything together really nicely. I originally opted to just substitute the sake from the recipe with more mirin, and compensate by omitting the sugar, but I decided to add it anyway and I was glad I did.

I used Kikkoman brand soy sauce. Something about it is very distinct from other brands/regional types and its very noticeable in the final result. I got mine from Walmart.

I prefer brown rice over any other kind, but you could use white rice of any grain size. I don’t recommend using jasmine rice or any other fragrant variety.

I almost didn’t use garlic, but I really like garlic butadon (pork bowl) and I think it brought the taste a tiny bit closer to what I remember from Sukiya (all the chains have different styles), so use your own preference for garlic to decide.

I also added one egg per person, although I ended up with about six portions overall. These can be poached eggs to put on top of the dish or mixed in right at the end. I mixed mine in and scrambled them as they cooked.

OK NOW: STEPS

Start your rice! I use a 1″ method. Rinse your rice with cold water until its mostly clear, then add water until its 1″ above the level of rice. Boil it uncovered until the water is level with the rice, then cover and reduce heat to low to steam it. I check on it later when I think it might be done, and add a 1 to 1.5 cups of water depending on how hard the rice on top is. If you’re doing white rice, it will usually come out pretty much perfect without adding more water, but brown rice needs more time and water.

I used around 2.5 cups of boiling water mixed with 4 tbsp dashi powder, because I like a strong flavor. Put this directly in a skillet/wok/large pan. I recommend not using a wok, but if thats what you have go for it. Add around 5 tbsp of Mirin, mix, and bring to a boil.

After it starts to boil, add your onion wedges/pieces. Cook them until they become somewhat soft. Add your beef strips (I add the bigger/thicker ones first) and simmer them until they are mostly brown. Add about 4 tbsp of soy sauce and 1tbsp of sugar, mix it in a little so it spreads evenly around the pan.

I let things simmer for a little longer, then taste the sauce, and add more things to adjust it. I like a nice sweet-salty-savory balance, so I’ll add a bit more soy sauce if I think its too sweet, or a bit more mirin if its too salty/savory.

Let the sauce reduce uncovered for awhile until your rice is finished. When the rice is done, throw in about a tsp of crushed garlic or a single large clove of chopped garlic and let that infuse a bit. Add your raw eggs if you’re using them, and scramble them into the mix. Serve over a bed of rice!

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