The best way to cook for others is to have somebody else do it for you. Your guests, for instance. The dining ritual of Japanese-style one-pot cooking is performed right on the table, by everyone, and it can include everything from sukiyaki to torinabe to my favorite, shabu-shabu.
My wife, Cynthia, who is half Japanese, often cooks one-pot Japanese dinners. Er, correction: We all cook when we have such dinners. That’s the fun of it.
Shabu-shabu sounds sexy and is a great way to share an intimate dinner for two–or 20. The name shabu-shabu imitates the sound you make as you gently swish your chopsticks-held morsels of raw meat in the steaming broth.
The ingredients are placed in a central electric saucepan or casserole on the dining table. The diners themselves cook and retrieve the ingredients–including mushrooms, scallions (or green onions), cabbage, chrysanthemum leaves, tofu, bamboo shoots, and of course thinly sliced beef–which is where the creative action begins.
Shabu-shabu recipes specifically call for thinly sliced beef, usually sirloin, that can be found in Asian-specialty stores in the Chicago area. (My mother-in-law, Kazuko Lehrman, goes to Sea Ranch Fish on Lake Avenue in Wilmette or Mitsuwa in Arlington Heights.) But a reasonable substitute can be prepared from regular beef or lamb loin rib by your neighborhood butcher (the meat should be sliced no thicker than 1/16 of an inch). It can also be prepared on a stovetop if no electric skillet is available. Sukiyaki (beef and vegetables braised in soy sauce) and torinabe (chicken and vegetables cooked in flavored stock) can also be prepared in this way.
But the real entertainment value of shabu-shabu is to cook it at table, with all the raw ingredients beautifully arrayed on platters, and the diners well fortified with sake and beer. By the way, shabu-shabu is also high-protein, low-carb.
Since the principal ingredients are chopped and stored on platters beforehand, when Cynthia and I have company over for shabu-shabu, we are able to greet and socialize–actually focus on our guests–instead of being preoccupied in the kitchen with cooking dinner.
Conviviality rules. This is no small thing. I have always found dinner parties to be a bit of a burden, especially on my wife, who tends to scramble around between the stove and the dining room trying to make everything perfect.
With shabu-shabu you can relax. and, unlike traditional Western dishes, there is little fear of screwing up–most people have nothing to compare it to, and because diners do their own cooking, there will be no after-dinner backchat about the soup being too salty or the meat being overdone.
While it seems exotic, shabu-shabu is actually remarkably easy to make. Meat cooks quickly in boiling water, and the paper-thin slices are done in a few seconds.
In restaurants, shabu-shabu is often served in a brass hoko-nabe, a pot that operates on the same principle as a samovar. But you don’t need one. Our electric skillet is a standard 12-inch model, made by Farberware, with its own thermometer (which also isn’t really necessary, but do use an extension cord). Just bring the liquid to simmer, or a low boil, and keep it there.
The art of eating shabu-shabu has to do with how the individual diner decides to combine the various items in his or her little mixing bowls, where the rice, meat, and vegetables are transferred (for cooling) and then dipped in sauce. Ideally, the mixing bowls are the pretty Japanese type, the kind you see in Asian specialty stores and wonder what you would use them for, besides miso soup. (This is what you use them for!) But any small dessert, cereal, or condiment bowls will do.
Two dipping sauces are typically prepared beforehand (see Cynthia’s recipes), and which sauce you use for which combination is entirely up to you. Some people are obsessively neat and artistic about this, while others fumble and splash and leave their eating area looking as if it had been hit by a minor soy-sauce tsunami. Ultimately each diner creates the flavor (and the mess) he or she desires. It’s, you know, karmic.
Before you begin, have a cup of heated sake. Now have another. There. Now you are ready to undertake shabu-shabu. n
Guest columnist Woody Hochswender, based on the East Coast, writes frequently about style for the Magazine. He is co-author of “The Buddha in Your Mirror” (Middleway Press).
SHABU-SHABU
Three to four servings
2 cups short-grain rice (also called glutinous rice)
10 cups water
1 head napa cabbage
1 carrot, peeled and sliced
8 fresh medium mushrooms (shiitake or others), stemmed and cleaned
1 large cake tofu, cut into 1-inch by 2-inch pieces
1 bamboo shoot, thinly sliced
1 pound shabu-shabu beef * (thawed, if previously frozen)
2 bunches green onions, green parts only, cut into 1-inch pieces (reserve white part for sauce recipes on page 27)
1 pound baby spinach leaves
1/2 pound bean sprouts
Udon or soba noodles, optional
1. Prepare rice and set aside. Keep warm.
2. Make a cooking broth (or court bouillon) by bringing the water, a few outer leaves of cabbage, the carrot and a few mushrooms to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until broth becomes fragrant and turns the color of weak green tea, about 15 minutes. This can be done in the electric skillet just before dinner or in advance in a saucepan or pressure cooker.
3. Cut remaining cabbage horizontally into 1-inch-thick slices.
4. When ready to cook, return the broth to a simmer. Add some larger vegetables right away (using chopsticks or a slotted spoon if the latter is more comfortable)–cabbage, mushrooms and tofu, because they take longer to cook. Then add any of the remaining ingredients according to your preference. You can put them in separate sections of the skillet, but eventually they will all flow together. Spinach and beef need only be swished briefly in the water.
5. To serve, place rice in individual bowls. Portion out dipping sauces into two small dishes per person. Use another bowl for vegetables and meat. Wood chopsticks are traditional (lacquer ones are slippery and hard to use) but are not a prerequisite for enjoying this meal, which is just as delicious with Western-style flatware.
6. In some Japanese homes, udon or soba noodles are cooked in the broth after the shabu-shabu is finished (if you have leftovers you can take them out of the pot and then add the noodles). The leftovers can also be served with the broth and noodles for lunch the next day.
*Note: Shabu-shabu recipes specifically call for thinly sliced beef, which can be found in the freezer section of the following Japanese grocery stores: Sea Ranch Grocery, 3223 Lake Ave., Wilmette; or Mitsuwa, 100 E. Algonquin Rd., Arlington Heights.
CYNTHIA’S SESAME SEED DIPPING SAUCE
1/2 cup white sesame seeds
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons sake
4 teaspoons mirin
4 teaspoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons miso paste
1 tablespoon finely sliced white part of green onion (reserved from shabu-shabu recipe), for garnish
1. Heat sesame seeds in a small skillet over medium heat, stirring constantly until seeds are light brown, fragrant and begin to pop, about 1 minute. Grind seeds in a coffee bean grinder or mortar and pestle until they form a dry paste.
2. Transfer sesame paste to a small bowl and whisk together with all other ingredients except green onion garnish, which should be added after mixing. (Note: The sauce will seem a bit thick but will be thinned by broth from shabu-shabu as you dip meats and vegetables in it.)
CYNTHIA’S PONZU DIPPING SAUCE*
3/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup lemon juice
3 tablespoons chicken or vegetable broth
1 tablespoon mirin
2 teaspoons sake
1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon finely sliced white part of green onion (reserved from shabu-shabu recipe), for garnish
1. Combine all ingredients in a small bowl, garnishing with the green onion after mixing. Serve at room temperature.
*Note: (Ponzu dipping sauce is sold pre-made at Japanese and gourmet food stores)
