Hayashi Rice

This is a big cheat. Super simple, cheap, and uses a roux block from the Japanese market. But there are rarely leftovers, and it’s just the thing when you want a nice comforting meal.

Hayashi Rice, adapted from I Nom Things

1 Tbsp. oil
1.5 lbs cheap beef (I used skirt steak, on-sale flavored!)
2 onions, largeish
1/2 lb.  mushrooms, sliced
2 Tbsp. tomato paste*
1/2 c. red wine
1 pkg. hayashi roux blocks
1 c. beef broth
2 c. water
Salt and pepper to taste

Slice the beef thinly and against the grain so it’s chewable. Heat the oil in a large pot and pop the beef in to start browning, seasoning it lightly (that roux block is salty). Slice the onions while it’s cooking; the beef should be brown but doesn’t need to be cooked through. Once it’s browned, get it out of the pot and pop the onions in to soften in the remaining oil and beef fat. Slice the mushrooms.

When the onions are beginning to soften, add the mushrooms, turn up the heat and fry the crap out the mushrooms and onions until they smell so delicious you can hardly stand it. Add the tomato paste and stir it around and fry a little more. Add the wine and scrape up all the delicious brown stuff on the bottom of the pan; let it cook until the wine is almost gone, and then add the broth and water. (You can use all broth if yours is low-sodium, but otherwise it’s WAY too salty.) Add the steak back in and let it all cook for ten or fifteen minutes.

Chop the roux blocks and add them to the simmering stew about twenty minutes before serving. Let it simmer until it thickens nicely and is lovely and glossy, and serve over rice.

*I like the kind in the tube — it’s more expensive, sure, but it’s more concentrated and tastes better, and you can put what you don’t use in the fridge instead of staring uncomfortably at a half-used can and trying to figure out what to do with it.

~ by iliadawry on 15 May 2012.