Beef Shigureni is a quick and extremely flavourful, Japanese stewed dish – perfect for lunch. The beef is gently simmered for just 30 minutes in a potent seasoning liquid of sake, mirin and soy sauce – ecstasy in a bowl!
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
Remember my Japanese landlady? Well, as simple as this recipe is, she was one difficult lady to please – too dry, too hard, too soft! Good job I love beef, because boy, did I have a whole lot when I was learning this!
“Shigure” means a quick or intermittent shower. So this beef shigureni is so named because it’s a quick stew. Although I have heard it said that the name also describes the quick shower of flavours that hit you with the first mouthful, either way, it really is a dish you must try for yourself!
Perfect as a simple lunch with a bowl of steamed rice and salad. I have this at least once a week, perfect way to up my protein intake on gym days!
Beef Shigureni also makes a wonderful side dish for any Oriental meal you happen to be serving.
What cuts of beef for Beef Shigureni?
As we only cook this for 30 minutes, I still go for the quick cuts, but not the expensive ones like sirloin. Feather steaks are perfect for this. You can read more about cuts of beef on the Singapore Beef Hor Fun page, just scroll to the end.
Substitute for Sake – if you can’t get sake, or it’s too costly, use Chinese wine (not vinegar) or the equivalent amount of dry sherry.
Mirin – Mirin is Japanese sweet rice wine. So to substitute this, use 1 tsp of white sugar in half a cup of rice or white wine. Even dry sherry will work here. Not sweet sherry. As a lover of sweet sherry, I can tell you that the flavour is all wrong somehow.
More Japanese Recipes on LinsFood
Head on over to the Japanese page for more recipes to tickle your tastebuds; from noodles to snacks, and not to forget the fundamentals! Like the following:
If you like the recipe, don’t forget to leave me a comment and that all important, 5-star rating! Thank you!
And if you make the recipe, share it on any platform and tag me @azlinbloor, and hashtag it #linsfood
Lin xx
Beef Shigureni
Ingredients
- 500 g (1.1 lb) thinly sliced beef
- ¼ tsp ground white pepper
- 1 Tbsp mirin
- 1 Tbsp sake
- 2 Tbsp light soy sauce
- 7.5 cm (3") fresh ginger thinly sliced
- 2 Tbsp sugar
- 250 ml (1 cup) water
Instructions
- Lightly marinade the beef with the pepper and half the mirin & sake for 10 minutes
- Place all the ingredients apart from the beef, in a saucepan & bring to a boil.
- Add the beef, bring back to boil then simmer, covered, for 20 minutes.
- Take the lid off & simmer for another 10 minutes until most of the sauce has reduced. You’ll be left with a small amount of delicious, to die for sauce.
I felt like eating Japanese food last night and found this beef recipe on your blog. Everyone gobbled it down! It was very easy to make and absolutely delicious! we ate it so quickly that I forgot to take a photo. 😀 Next time!
Haha, awesome! This is one of my favourite beef dishes ever, I think!
This looks really nice. What’s the best cut of beef for this?
Thanks Adam. Any steak meant for quick cooking is great for this, like sirloin, ribeye, etc.
Sounds like a great midweek meal. Bookmarked, thanks.
A pleasure!
This is great, cheers. I had it for lunch with only a little rice, perfect post workout.
That’s great, Bryan, thank you!