Japanese Beef Rice Bowl with Egg (Gyudon)

Delicious and healthy Japanese-style beef rice bowl with egg or known as Gyudon is one of my family’s favorite. There’s never a week that goes by without this meal on our dining table. It is simple to make, yet delightful. Gyudon is healthy, yet very pleasant and satisfying. Thinly sliced beef and onion simmered with mildly sweet and savory sauce makes a perfect combination and creates a delicate flavor to your taste buds. Imagine all that on top of your fluffy steamed rice, topped off with a soft-poached egg (onsen tamago) and garnished with sliced green onion and red pickled ginger. What a powerful combination.

Gyudon, or Japanese beef rice bowl, is such a comfort food in Japan that you can see quite a lot of restaurant selling it in Japan. Here in the United States, you can probably find Gyudon at Yoshinoya or maybe at Japanese grocery stores, such as Uwajimaya or Nijiya market. However, you can easily make it at home too, just as how you can make this beloved comfort food, katsudon, at home as well. It is not overly complicated. I think the essential one is to have your beef sliced thinly – like shabu-shabu style. Usually at the Asian grocery store, they will have a section where you can find all the pre-sliced meat. It will make cooking Gyudon even simpler.

Also, to poach many eggs at once, I will share with you the small-bowl poaching method (see below). It will save you plenty of time as you can poach about two to three eggs at once, depending how big the pan that you are using. Let’s get cooking, shall we?

Tool I used:

• Non-stick deep square pan – non-stick deep square pan that is easy to clean, not too heavy, and evenly heated your cooking.
• Saucepan – non-stick, heat-up evenly, and easy to clean. This one is great to have for making poached egg, sauce, and one-person instant noodle ^^.

Tip: To make sure that the egg is not ‘splattered’ around when poaching the egg, do not forget to add about one or two tablespoons of vinegar in the pan along with water. Vinegar will somehow ‘hold’ the egg together.

Ingredient:

• 2 lbs beef sirloin – thinly sliced
• 1 medium-sized onion – sliced
• 3 cloves garlic – minced
• 4 eggs
• 1 tablespoon vinegar
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon Hondashi
• ½ cup water
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon corn starch
• Chopped green onion (to garnish)
• Minced red pickled ginger Benishoga (to garnish)

Direction:

• Pre-heat olive oil in a pan under medium heat. Once heated, add sliced onion, minced garlic, give it a good stir, and let it cook until it is fragrant or about 1-2 minutes.
• Add sliced beef sirloin, oyster sauce, soy sauce, Hondashi, sugar, and water to the pan. Stir and let it cook for about 3-5 minutes.
• In a small bowl, add a teaspoon of corn starch and a tablespoon of water. Mix it well and add it to the pan.
• Add the cornstarch-water mixture to the pan, and let it boil. Set aside.
• Let’s make the poached egg. Boil water and vinegar in a saucepan in a high heat. Once it is boiled, reduce the heat to the lowest one. Wait a bit until all the bubbles are gone. Crack an egg into a small bowl – the small bowl and vinegar will help to have each egg ‘hold’ together without having to swirl the water. Using the small bowl and place the egg gently when it’s closer to the hot water.
• Repeat the process above, but do not overcrowd the pan. Let each of the egg cook for about 5 minutes for ‘soft-poached’ egg or 6-7 minutes for firmer egg.
• To serve, place fluffy steamed rice on a bowl. Then, scoop about a ladle or two of gyudon (beef) covering the rice.
• Then, place one poached egg in the middle and garnish each bowl with chopped green onion and red pickled ginger.
• Enjoy!