Beef, Bamboo Combine in Simple, Simmered Dish; Less Than 10 Minutes for Meal Embodying Freshness of Spring
The Yomiuri Shimbun
Beef simmered with wakatake-ni.
Wakatake-ni, a dish made with bamboo shoots and seasonal wakame seaweed, is a treat bursting with the freshness of spring. Akihiko Murata, owner of a Japanese restaurant, adds beef to this popular dish to increase its richness. I found the dish to be both elegant and energizing.
Bamboo shoots, which have a pleasant texture and a distinctive mild aroma, are an invaluable ingredient for Murata at his restaurant this time of year. The gyuniku no wakatake-ni (wakatake-ni with beef) is often served at the end of a multicourse meal at his restaurant.
Making the dish is simple. Cut up the ingredients, add to the dashi broth in order and simmer. The whole process takes less than 10 minutes. The important thing is to bring out the individual flavor of each ingredient.
'The umami of the wakame and beef can add depth to dishes. But in this dish, the umami should not be transferred to the bamboo shoots,' Murata said.
I think the cooking method employed in this dish is somewhere between taki-awase, in which ingredients are cooked separately and served in the same bowl, and nimono, in which the flavors of the ingredients are mixed by cooking them together.
Murata started cooking by simmering the bamboo shoots. The bamboo shoots almost seemed to be swimming in the dashi.
'In Japanese cooking, ingredients are simmered in plenty of dashi,' Murata said. 'If there is not enough dashi, it tends to simmer down and the dish's flavor will lack consistency.'
Simmering in a large amount of dashi may seem a bit wasteful for home cooking, but 'you can boil vegetables, such as spinach and komatsuna [Japanese mustard spinach], in the leftover dashi. It makes a great side dish,' Murata said.
He then added wakame, and then beef and fuki Japanese butterbur, simmering all the while. The intervals between adding each ingredient are short, so using a clock to time it can help avoid mistakes. The temperature will drop slightly after adding the beef, so increase the heat to compensate. The scum from the beef does not need to be carefully skimmed off, except for any big lumps that form.
I was served the freshly cooked dish. The bamboo shoots had a pleasant crunch. Its light aroma and sweetness spread throughout my mouth. The richly flavored beef was satisfying. The Japanese butterbur was slightly crunchy, refreshing my palate. The natural flavors of the ingredients were brought out effectively by letting them soak up just the right amount of dashi. This dish would go well with both sake and rice.
Wakatake-ni with beef
Ingredients (serves 2):
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