Name: Sliced Seared Beef (Tataki)
Yield: Serves four
Cuisine: Japanese
Ingredients: generous pinch of salt; 500 g/1¼ lb chunk of beef thigh (a long, thin chunk looks better than a thick, round chunk); 10 ml/2 tsp vegetable oil; 1 garlic clove, thinly sliced; 6 shiso leaves and shiso flowers (if available); about 15 cm/6 in Japanese cucumber or ordinary salad cucumber; 1 small onion, thinly sliced; 200 ml/7 fl oz/scant 1 cup rice vinegar; sansho; 1 garlic clove, finely grated (optional); 135 ml/4½ fl oz/scant ⅔ cup shoyu; 15 ml/1 tbsp caster (superfine) sugar; ½ lemon, thinly sliced; 70 ml/4½ tbsp sake

Preparation info

Serves
four

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

The Japanese Cookbook

By Emi Kazuko and Yasuko Fukuoka

Published 2024

About

Japanese chefs use a cooking technique called Tataki to cook rare steak. They normally use a coal fire and sear a chunk of beef on long skewers, then plunge it into cold water to stop if cooking further. Use a wire mesh grill over the heat source to cook this way.

Ingredients

500 g/1¼ lb chunk of beef thigh (a long, thin chunk looks better than a thick, round chunk)
generous pinch

Method

Mix the marinade ingredients in a small pan and warm through until the sugar has dissolved. Remove from the heat and leave to cool.
Generously sprinkle the beef with the salt and rub well into the meat. Leave for 2-3 minutes, then rub the oil