Japanese Beef Stew

I know. I know. Stew in August? Seems odd, I know. But the snifter of recipes spoke and the beef stew is what it said. Besides its been chillier than normal the last couple of days.

This stew was interesting to me. I'm used to stews being savory and this stew was sweet.  It's called Nikujaga in Japanese and is a classic home-cooked winter dish for the Japanese.  It consists of meat and potatoes in a sweetened soy based broth.  Strangely delicious.

Japanese Beef Stew
Serves 6

• 2 lb boneless beef chuck roast, cut into large chunks
• 4 medium russet potatoes, peeled and halved
• 3 medium carrots, peeled and chopped on a bias
• 1 yellow onion, roughly chopped
• 1 oz dried shitake mushrooms, rinsed (I don't like shitakes so I used button mushrooms)
• 1 c water
• 1/2 c sake or dry white wine
• 1/3 c low sodium soy sauce
• 1/4 c sugar
• 2 T mirin or rice wine
• 2 T fish sauce
• 1 T minced fresh ginger
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1/4 c minced scallions (which I forgot)

Combine everything but the scallions in a slow cooker.  Cook on high heat for 3-4 hours or low heat 7-8 hours. I cooked it on slow heat to make sure the meat was nice and tender.

To serve, use a fork and pull the meat and potatoes into bite size pieces. Skim the fat off the broth (which I didn't have a lot). Garnish with scallions.

Super easy and quite good.