Japanese Nikujaga

Ingredients

• 500 g beef sirloin, thinly sliced
• 150 g mangetout or green beans, trimmed
• 600 g waxy potatoes, peeled and cut into large chunks
• 2 carrots, peeled and cut into chunks on the diagonal
• 2 large onions, cut into wedges
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 600 ml dashi stock, or light chicken stock
• 4 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tbsp caster sugar
• 3 tbsp mirin
• 2 tbsp sake
• steamed white rice, to serve
• 4 spring onions, thinly sliced, to serve

Method

1. Pat the sliced beef dry and season generously with salt and pepper — water on the surface means steam, and steam means no browning. Heat the vegetable oil in a wide, heavy pot over medium-high heat until it shimmers.
2. Brown the beef in two batches. All at once and the pan crowds, water comes out, and you've boiled the meat instead of searing it. Each batch wants 2–3 minutes, stirring once or twice, until the edges catch and turn deep brown. Lift out with a slotted spoon.
3. Drop the onion wedges into the same pot and cook for about 3 minutes until softened and just starting to colour at the cut edges. Pour in the sake and let it bubble hard for 1 minute, scraping up the browned fond from the base — that's where the flavour lives.
4. Add the potatoes, carrots, dashi stock, soy sauce, mirin and sugar. The stock is your break-down liquid here — it carries the sweetness into the potatoes as they cook. Bring to a gentle simmer, cover, and cook over medium heat for 20 minutes, until the potatoes are mostly tender and have started to drink in the broth.
5. Return the beef to the pot, nestling it among the vegetables, and scatter in the mangetout. Simmer uncovered for 8–10 minutes, until the potatoes are completely tender and the broth has reduced to a glossy, slightly syrupy slick that coats the back of a spoon.
6. Taste the broth — most of the salt comes from the soy, but adjust now with a splash more soy or a pinch of salt to tie it together. Sweet, savoury, deeply comforting. Adjust now, not at the table.
7. Ladle the nikujaga into bowls over steamed white rice. Scatter generously with the sliced spring onions and toasted sesame seeds, and finish each bowl with a squeeze of lime — the acid lifts the sweet broth and stops it cloying.