About the Recipe
It's no secret that the Japanese eat a lot less meat than Westerners. The way the Japanese consume meat is also different. It's rare to find meat served as a joint in uncut form at a Japanese table in home or at a restaurant. The side of beef or the whole roast chicken is never seen outside of the kitchen. Why, you might ask. Well, I think you have to delve back in time to when the eating of meat was forbidden in Japan - this ban lasted a few centuries and formed the cultural background to the way people think about eating meat today. The cutting of meat is still considered "unclean" - so much so that people engaged in the butchery of meat are considered to be a lower caste (even today although most Japanese deny it.) So the cutting of meat is strictly something for the kitchen not the table And so it is with this dish, my Japanese beefsteak arrives at the table already sliced and topped with a Japanese onion sauce. Don't worry, it may be sliced but I assure you, it still tastes great!
Ingredients
70g baby spinach
80g stem broccoli
70g yellow pepper
80g baby tomatoes
50g peeled red onion
1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 sirloin steaks
for the onion sauce:
110g peeled onion
30g peeled carrot
2 cloves of garlic
1 tbsp vegetable oil
3 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp mirin
Preparation
finely slice the onion then soak in water for 15mins (changing the water once)
finely slice the pepper
halve the tomatoes
for the onion sauce:
thinly slice the garlic, carrot & onion
heat the oil in a pan and stir-fry the garlic, carrot & onion over a medium heat for 3 minutes
add the soy sauce, mirin, cooking sake & vinegar and simmer for 3 minutes
put it in a blender and blend well
back to the steak salad:
blanche the stem broccoli in boiling water for 2 mins
heat 1 tbsp of oil in a frying pan and fry the steaks for 1 min each side over a high heat
reduce the heat to medium and fry for between 1 - 3 mins each side (depending on how you like your steak)
mix all the vegetables together in a bowl and divide the salad between your serving plates
slice the steaks into 1cm strips and place on the salad
serve with japanese onion sauce