I've been playing around lately alot with Japanese cuisine, and in celebration of this here is a main course which comprises several elements of typical Japanese cuisine. Yakitori is a meat glaze that is quite sweet, and complements almost all meats and fishes of a robust flavour, due to the wide range in its flavour band, from the sweetness of the sugar and the sake and mirin, to the more earthy flavour of soy.
Yasai itself refers to a vegetable dish - in this case its a noodle dish. All things considered, you can use virtually any kind of vegetable, as long as it can be quickly cooked in a pan (traditionally a wok). In this instance i use mushrooms, courgettes and spring onions but this is not exclusive.
You will need: (per serving)
1 rib eye steak (sirloin is also acceptible)
3 spring onions, cut into juliennes
4 shitake mushrooms, cut into thin slices
2 baby courgettes, cut into julienne
yakitori sauce
Ramen noodles (cooked).
Meat stock (beef or chicken)
The doing bit:
Bring the steak out of a chilled environment and leave for half an hour covered at room temperature. Glaze the meat with the yakitori sauce with a brush, and allow to rest for a little while whilst you prepare everything else (chopping and trimming vegetables etc)
Steak
Heat up a heavy bottomed frying pan and add a little oil until smoking hot. Sear the steak one side for about a minute then turn, brushing the steak with more of the marinade. I usually cook my steak to rare / medium rare but its up to you. The less the steak is cooked, the more it will complement the glaze. Rare or medium rare is ideal. Using a carving knife or saishimi knife, carve the steak into slices and serve with the noodle dish.
Yasai Ramen
Heat up a frying pan or wok, and add a little oil until very hot (it will begin to smoke). Add the vegetables and cook for about a minute until they just soften. Add a small cup of stock and the noodles also. Serve with the steak in a large bowl, and drizzle with any of the pan juices, and devour.
