Beef And Vegetables Simmered In Soy Sauce And Sake

500 g boneless lean beef, preferably fillet or sirloin
250 g tinned shirataki noodles, drained
1 whole bamboo shoot, scraped at the base, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced crosswise
6 spring onions, including 7.5 cm stem, cut into 4 cm pieces
1 medium-sized onion, sliced 1 cm thick
4 to 6 small white mushrooms, cut into 5 mm slices
2 cakes soy bean curd, cut into 2.5 cm cubes
60 g watercress, Chinese cabbage, or Chinese chrysanthemum leaves
1 strip beef fat, 5 cm long, folded into a square packet
15 to 20 cl Japanese soy sauce
3 to 6 tablespoons sugar
15 to 20 cl sake

Place the beef in your freezer for about 30 minutes, or just long enough to stiffen it slightly for easier slicing. Then, with a heavy sharp knife, cut the beef against the grain into slices 3 mm thick. Cut the slices in half crosswise.

Bring about ¼ liter water to the boil and drop in the shirataki noodles; return to the boil. Drain and cut the noodles into thirds. Run cold running water over the bamboo shoot slices and then drain them.

Arrange the meat, shirataki and vegetables attractively in separate rows on a large platter.

If you are using an electric skillet, preheat it to 220º C; if not, substitute a 25 to 30 cm skillet set over a table burner and preheat for several minutes.

Hold the folded strip of fat with chopsticks or tongs and rub it over the bottom of the hot skillet. Add 6 to 8 slices of meat to the skillet, pour in 4 tablespoons of soy sauce and sprinkle the meat with 3 tablespoons of sugar. Cook for a minute, stir and turn the meat over. Push the meat to one side of the skillet. Add about one-third of the spring onions, onion, mushrooms, soy bean curd, shirataki, greens, and bamboo shoots in equal amounts; sprinkle them with 4 tablespoons of sake and cook for an additional 4 to 5 minutes.

With chopsticks or long-handled forks (such as fondue forks), transfer the contents of the pan to individual plates and serve. Continue cooking the remaining sukiyaki batch by batch as already described, checking the temperature of the pan from time to time. If it seems too hot and the food begins to stick or burn, lower the heat or cool the pan more quickly by adding a drop or two of cold water to the sauce.