Steak bowl with warishita butter sauce

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This steak bowl with warishita butter sauce from Tim Anderson's latest cookbook Bowls & Bento is a hearty modern Japanese dish perfect for when you want good food fast. Thinly sliced rare steak is served over a small mountain of Japanese rice, and then topped with a soy-marinated egg yolk

Extracted from JapanEasy Bowls & Bento by Tim Anderson (Hardie Grant, £25), Photography ©Laura Edwards

First published in 2022

Tim Anderson says, “Warishita is the name of a sauce made by seasoning dashi with generous quantities of soy sauce, sake, mirin and sugar. It is sort of like the lovechild of teriyaki sauce and tsuyu, most commonly used in the perennially popular beef hotpot, sukiyaki. Here, it is used to deglaze the pan after frying a steak, then mixed with butter and topped with an egg yolk for a truly decadent take on the humble gyūdon (beef bowl).”

Ingredients

Metric

Imperial

  • 1 dash of sesame oil
  • 4 tbsp of soy sauce
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 3 tbsp of sake
  • 3 tbsp of water
  • 2 tbsp of mirin
  • 1 tbsp of brown sugar
  • 1/2 tsp dashi powder
  • 400g of steak, about 1 very large, or 2 smaller ones, any cut you like
  • salt
  • freshly ground black pepper
  • vegetable oil, as needed
  • 10g of butter, more if you're using quite lean steak, or if you just really like butter
  • cooked rice, 2 portions
  • 1 handful of chives, finely chopped (optional)
  • wasabi paste, to taste (optional)
  • pickled ginger, to garnish

Method

1

Grease a couple of ramekins or similar small containers with sesame oil, then divide 1 tablespoon soy sauce between them. Carefully place the egg yolks in each cup and leave to cure lightly while you prepare the rest of the meal

2

Combine the remaining 3 tablespoons soy sauce with the sake, water, mirin, sugar and dashi powder and stir well to dissolve

  • 3 tbsp of soy sauce
  • 3 tbsp of sake
  • 3 tbsp of water
  • 2 tbsp of mirin
  • 1 tbsp of brown sugar
  • 1/2 tsp dashi powder
3

Season the steak on all sides with salt and pepper. In a lightly oiled frying pan set over a high heat, cook the steak to your liking – if you’re going for a very thick steak, this should take about 10 minutes, turning the steak every minute. Remember to err on the side of rare – if you cut into it and it’s not done, you can keep cooking it, but if it’s overdone, there’s no going back

4

Remove the steak from the pan and remove the pan from the heat

5

Leave the pan to cool slightly, then add the sauce and bring to the boil

6

Add the butter and whisk it into the sauce as it melts. Keep the sauce at a low simmer until ready to serve

  • 10g of butter, more if you're using quite lean steak, or if you just really like butter
7

Slice the steak very thinly and arrange the slices in a circle on top of each bowl of hot rice. Place an egg yolk in the middle of each bowl, then spoon over the sauce

8

Garnish with the chopped chives and a dab of wasabi and pickled ginger on the side, if using, and serve piping hot

  • 1 handful of chives, finely chopped (optional)
  • wasabi paste, to taste (optional)
  • pickled ginger, to garnish
First published in 2022

Tim Anderson is a chef, writer, restaurateur, and MasterChef champion.

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