I rarely cook steak. In this case, I define rarely as: once every four months kind of thing. Yes, it’s that rare.

But when I cook steak, it’s always Japanese Beef Steak. My friend asked me yesterday when I was having this for dinner: what’s the difference between normal steak and Japanese steak?

Well, the answer is simple: the sauce. For this steak, I use light teriyaki sauce which is straight from Adam Liaw’s recipe.

I know now why people love steak: It’s easy and filling. That being said, it’s easy to undercook/overcook a steak, or to cook a steak that’s tough. So if you’re like me, here’s how I do it.

But first, the sauce.

Not the best-looking bottle, but you really can just use any bottle you want.

Light Teriyaki Sauce

I use this sauce all the time now—to cook beef enoki, salmon teriyaki, white fish teriyaki, chicken teriyaki, and so on. The sauce is so versatile and it’s not sickly sweet or salty—it’s so good! (Thanks Adam Liaw!) Make a big batch and store it in the fridge. It will last for months.

INGREDIENTS

  • 250 ml soy sauce
  • 200 ml mirin
  • 200 ml sake
  • 80 g caster sugar

METHOD

  1. Mix together all ingredients in a small saucepan. Stir over low heat until sugar is dissolved. Taste and see whether it needs more soy sauce/sugar, or even water—adjust to your liking! Allow to cool before storing in a glass bottle in the fridge.

Japanese Beef Steak

This steak is adapted from Japanese Cooking 101 blog, which sauce I change with Adam Liaw’s recipe.

Serves 2
Cooks in 15 minutes
Difficulty easy

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 porterhouse beef steaks
  • salt
  • pepper
  • garlic, sliced thinly
  • oil

METHOD

  1. Add oil to pan (preferably a heavy pan—I use my Staub cast iron to cook this. I’ve used non-stick Tefal before and it works, but I do think the searing is way much better when you’re cooking on a heavy pan). Add garlic slices and remove them when they start to brown.
  2. Turn the heat to medium/medium-high. Add salt and pepper to the beef. Put the beef on the pan, and there should be a sizzling sound (indicating that the pan is hot enough). Cook on one side for two minutes or so, then turn to cook the other side. Note that you should cook each side only once—do not flip back and forth.
  3. Cook the other side for two minutes (or however long you want). Add a few spoonfuls of the light teriyaki sauce. Remove beef from pan to rest for five minutes before cutting. Let the teriyaki sauce to simmer a little bit longer to thicken the sauce.
  4. Cut the beef into slices and put the teriyaki sauce on top. Serve with the garlic.
  5. Enjoy with rice!