The thing that helped light a fire under my bum to start blogging again this year was realising that I have some core dishes I cook up when I have no idea what to make, and we absolutely love to eat them. These dishes were first made during the many lockdowns Melbourne endured, and I never really documented them. This is definitely one of those dishes.

It’s incredibly easy to make, and if you go to the Asian grocery store freezer section, you will find a range of thinly sliced meat for hotpot. Buy this and save yourself from having to painstakingly slice raw beef yourself. Allow it to thaw out in your fridge, or if you forget, just cook it from frozen; it doesn’t really make a difference.

We also enjoyed this dish served cold as part of ekiben (railway bento boxes) in Japan. It’s so delicious that even the kids will love it!

Yoshinoya-style Gyudon (Japanese Beef Rice Bowl)

Adam Liaw

Print Recipe

Servings 4

Ingredients

  

• 500g beef scotch fillet, topside or rump, very thinly sliced (or used the thin frozen hot pot beef from the Asian grocer like I do)
• ¾ cup chicken stock or dashi (you can used powdered dashi if you like)
• ¾ cup Homemade Teriyaki Sauce (or use 1/4 cup soy sauce, 2 tbsp sake, 2 tbsp mirin and 2 tsp sugar)
• 1 tsp sugar (optional)
• 1 brown onion, peeled and thickly sliced
• cooked short-grain rice, to serve
• benishouga (Japanese red picked ginger), to serve
• 2 sliced spring onions, to serve
• shichimi tougarashi (Japanese seven spice), to serve (optional)

Instructions

 

• Combine the stock or dashi and terkiyaki sauce with the sugar (if using) in a medium saucepan and bring to the boil. Add in the onion and simmer for 2-3 minutes until the onion has softened. Add in the beef and stir until the beef is just cooked. Season with salt if necessary.
• Fill 4 bowls with rice, flattening the top of the rice, and then add the beef mixture on top, allowing a little of the stock to soak into the rice. Sprinkle over a little Japanese seven spice and spring onion if you like, and serve with pickled ginger.

Notes

Tips for Gyudon

• Thinly sliced beef is available from Asian butchers, or frozen from Asian grocers. If you have trouble finding very thinly sliced beef, place a larger cut of beef in the freezer for 1-2 hours until quite firm and slice very thinly with a sharp knife.
• If you’re using Japanese beef which is heavily marbled with fat, it will be very tender when it just cooked. If using beef with very little fat, you can simmer the beef for perhaps 10-15 minutes to soften it.
• You can try this with very thinly sliced pork as well. Follow the exact same method as for the gyudon. A pork rice bowl is called “butadon”.
• Japanese gyudon places offer a range of extra toppings, like soft cooked eggs, grated radish and even kimchi. Try some of your own.