Yakiniku: The Japanese cooking method

The Japanese cooking method: Yakiniku

Mainly known for its fish-based culinary specialties, Japanese cuisine offers many other dishes. This is the ideal alternative if you want to eat a Japanese meal while enjoying delicious meat.

Do you know Yakiniku?

The word Y akiniku (焼肉) comes from yaku (to grill, 焼) and niku (meat, 肉). Therefore, it can be literally translated as "grilled meat". It is a Japanese method of cooking vegetables and meats, inspired by Korean barbecues. This world-famous technique involves cooking over charcoal, gas, or a hot plate.

What makes Yakiniku exceptional?

• The quality

The main ingredient of this dish is marinated beef. In Japan, there is a tradition of breeding that allows for exceptional quality beef.

However, it is also possible to find other types of meat such as chicken or offal. Yakiniku is also generally composed of vegetables such as carrots, mushrooms, onions, peppers, etc. The presence of fish is quite rare in this dish.

• Friendliness

All restaurants offering this specialty have their own grill for each table. This allows consumers to cook their meats themselves according to their tastes and expectations. This way of doing things makes the experience particularly friendly.

The meat is always served raw, in pieces, and most of the time without seasoning or sauce. Each customer has their own tongs to place their pieces of meat on the grill in the middle of the table. When the meat is cooked, the pieces are directly grabbed using chopsticks to be eaten immediately. This is also a hygiene method because in this way, the raw meat does not risk contaminating the cooked pieces.

In Japan, you can find a large number of Yakiniku restaurants.

But did you know that you can prepare this typical dish at home?

Follow all our advice.

List of ingredients needed (you can adapt it according to your tastes):

• 800 grams of beef fillet cut into thin slices
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 300 grams of mushrooms
• 4 peppers
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 4 tablespoons of cassonade
• 8 tablespoons soy sauce
• 4 tablespoons of sake
• 1 tablespoon of cornstarch diluted in a small glass of lukewarm water
• 1 drizzle of sunflower oil

List of materials needed for preparation:

• A salad bowl to reserve the sauce in
• Tablespoons
• A chef's knife for meat
• A knife for vegetables

How to prepare it?

Cut the meat into small strips of about 2 cm. Peel and cut the onions into thin slices of less than 100 mm. Cut the mushrooms and peppers into pieces.

For the seasoning, add all the ingredients of the recipe for the sauce to a salad bowl.