Shabu-Shabu

What is Shabu-Shabu?

It is one of the Japanese hot pot dishes. Ingredients such as sliced beef are cooked in boiling water or soup in a pan on a tabletop, and then dipped in a sauce to eat. The name "shabu-shabu" was adopted in 1952 by chef Chuichi Miyake of the Suehiro Main Store in Osaka, when he introduced "Mizutaki of beef," which was becoming popular as a new dish in Kansai at that time, as a menu item of the restaurant. It is said that the appearance of rinsing a hand towel in a basin is similar to the appearance of shaking meat in a pot, and that it is due to the sound of the water that stands at that time. In shabu-shabu, meat and vegetables are used. Meat is basically beef, and shabu-shabu usually implies to beef. For high-class shabu-shabu, local specialty Wagyu beef (Japanese beef) is used, and you can enjoy a soft and melty texture from the fine meat quality. Sometimes, pork, chicken, fish, and shellfish are used instead of beef.

Ingredients and Preparation

Shabu-shabu is popular as a dish that can be easily prepared at home while you can enjoy high-class dishes at shabu-shabu specialty stores. It is especially preferred in the cold season. There are also many ingredients and soups for shabu-shabu that can save cooking time.

Meat and vegetables are common ingredients. As for meat, beef and pork slices are common. As a variation, chicken breast or lamb meat may be used. In addition, fish and shellfish are sometimes used, and among them sea bream, crab, and yellowtail are popular. Snow crab and king crab are popular as crabs for shabu-shabu. It is called "buta shabu" for pork shabu-shabu and "crab shabu" for crab shabu-shabu. Chinese cabbage and green onions are the standard vegetables used, but mushrooms and root vegetables such as radishes and carrots are also popular. In addition to the ingredients, the dashi stock is also a decisive factor. Kombu soup stock is common.

There are no particular rules regarding the ingredients, but the point is to choose ingredients that can be cooked by dipping them in hot water. For ingredients that are difficult to cook, slice thinly and prepare.The meat used for shabu-shabu is sliced to a thickness of 1 mm or less so that it does not harden when cooked for a few seconds. However, even if it is not shabu-shabu meat, there is no problem if you use sliced meat. In the case of thick meat, the heating time will be longer, so the meat may become a little harder, but it will also have a good texture and taste.

The pots used to make shabu-shabu are generally made of copper or stainless steel. As for the shape, the one with a chimney-shaped thing in the middle is a shabu-shabu pot, but you can make delicious shabu-shabu with a pottery clay pot instead of metal without a chimney.

If you prepare a portable stove or IH cooker to use on the table, you can enjoy your meal while making shabu-shabu with your friends and family.

How to Make Konbu Dashi (Kelp Broth) for Shabu-Shabu

Make broth for shabu-shabu for 2 people with 800cc of water and 10g of konbu (kelp). As for kelp, dried kelp sold at supermarkets is sufficient.

1. First, prepare a towel that has been moistened with water and squeezed hard, and then lightly wipe the surface of the kelp. At this time, the white powder on the surface of the kelp is an umami ingredient. If you rinse the kelp with water to wash it, the umami ingredients will also flow together.

2. Put the kelp in a pot of water and let it soak for about 30 minutes to bring out the umami.

3. After about 30 minutes, heat the pot over low heat and slowly heat it until just before boiling when small bubbles appear from the bottom of the pot.

4. Turn off the heat just before boiling and take out the kelp. The kelp broth is completed.

How to Make Shabu-Shabu

1. First, heat the dashi. Besides the konbu dashi described above, you can also use bonito dashi, commercially available shabu-shabu soup, or mentsuyu. Put it in a pot and heat it over low heat. Be careful not to boil the soup stock.

2. When it's hot enough, soak the meat in it and cook it. Grab the slice with a chopstick, squeeze it firmly and shake it carefully over the soup. Shake the meat lightly from side to side. If you simmer for a long time, it will harden, so take it out of the juice as soon as the color changes.

3. When the broth of the meat comes out to some extent, add the vegetables and simmer. If you get a lot of lye on the way, try to scoop it out. The lye, which is a mixture of meat and vegetables, causes bitterness, so scoop it frequently.

4. Dipp boiled ingredients in a sauce to eat. Ponzu and sesame sauce are the standard sauces, but there are no particular rules.

The Finest Shabu-Shabu

The decisive factor for the finest shabu-shabu is the meat, which is the main ingredient.

Meat is Japanese beef, that is, "Wagyu." There are many Japanese beef brands all over Japan, but the Three Great Wagyu Beef in Japan is especially well known. Matsuzaka beef (Mie prefecture), Kobe beef (Hyogo prefecture), and Omi beef (Kyoto prefecture) are the three brands (or Matsuzaka beef, Kobe beef, and Yonezawa beef). When you go to a nearby area, try the Wagyu beef at a specialty restaurant. Aside from high-quality beef, high-quality pork is also a popular ingredient for the finest shabu-shabu. Kagoshima Berkshire (Kagoshima prefecture), Okinawa Agu (Okinawa prefecture), and Hirata Sangen Pig (Yamagata Prefecture) have been the top regulars in recent years.

You can get branded meat from all over the world not only at specialty stores but also at supermarkets and department stores. Please enjoy the unique taste of Japanese meat during your stay in Japan.