Asian Steak

Name: Asian Steak
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 15 min
Yield: 2 serving
Ingredients: 2 beef tenderloin steaks, around 150g/5oz each (Note 1); 1 tbsp vegetable oil (or other neutral cooking oil); 1 tbsp soy sauce, all purpose (Note 2); 2 tbsp Mirin (Note 3); 3 tbsp cooking sake (Note 3); 45g/3tbsp unsalted butter; 1 small garlic clove, minced; 1/2 tsp ginger, minced (can exclude); 3 tsp shallots/scallions (green part) or chives, finely chopped

User Reviews

5.0

63 reviews

Excellent

Prep Time
5 mins
Cook Time
5 mins
Total Time
15 mins
Servings
2
Calories
506 kcal
Course
Main Course
Cuisine
Asian

Asian Steak

Ursula Wilson

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An incredible Asian Steak recipe, with a simple yet stunning sauce inspired by the great Tetsuya, a highly regarded Japanese-Australian chef. Make this with small pieces of high quality beef steak! See notes for my tips on FREEZING rice - so handy to have on standby for quick meals!

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Ingredients

Servings

2 beef tenderloin steaks, around 150g/5oz each (Note 1)
1 tbsp vegetable oil (or other neutral cooking oil)

Sauce

1 tbsp soy sauce, all purpose (Note 2)
2 tbsp Mirin (Note 3)
3 tbsp cooking sake (Note 3)
45g/3tbsp unsalted butter
1 small garlic clove, minced
1/2 tsp ginger, minced (can exclude)
3 tsp shallots/scallions (green part) or chives, finely chopped

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Instructions

Take the steak out of the fridge 20 minutes prior to cooking (or 10 minutes if it's a stinking hot summer day).
Combine soy sauce, Mirin and sake in a small bowl.
Heat oil in a skillet over medium high heat until smoking. Add steak and cook to your liking. Mine were 150g/5oz each and 3cm/1.25" thick and I cooked it 3 minutes on the 1st side and 2 minutes on the second side for medium rare.
Transfer steak onto a plate and cover loosely with foil. Rest for 5 minutes.
Let the skillet cool down a bit then return to the stove over medium high heat. Add Sauce and bring to simmer, then add butter. When the butter melts and is incorporated into the sauce, immediately remove it from the stove.
Stir through garlic, ginger and 2 tsp of shallots (reserve rest for garnish), the sauce should be slightly thickened (if not, keep stirring, thickens more as it cools).
Place steak on plates and spoon over sauce. I served the steaks with finely shredded cabbage without dressing (very typical Japanese side) and white rice, plus some edamame on the side.

Notes

This recipe is intended to be made with a small piece of good quality steak because that's the way "it's done" at contemporary Asian restaurants!
I used 2 tenderloin steaks that were about 3cm/1.25" thick. Any quality beef steak will be ideal for this - though the sauce is so good, it will go with any cut of steak suitable for grilling. For example, you could use flank/skirt/bavette/flat iron or any quick grilling cut, slice it against the grain then drizzle this sauce over it.
I don't use wagyu because it's so rich as it is, it really doesn't need a sauce!
This recipe requires an all purpose soy sauce, so not light or dark soy sauce. I use Kikkoman. If you only have light soy sauce, decrease to 2 1/2 teaspoons. I don't recommend dark soy sauce, the flavour is too strong and will dominate the sauce too much.
Low sodium soy sauce is also fine.
Mirin is a Japanese rice wine that is sweet. It's key ingredient in Japanese cooking. Japanese sake is a rice wine that is also an essential in Japanese cooking. In Australia, both are readily available nowadays, sold at all major supermarkets like Woolies and Coles. I do not know of a suitable substitution for Mirin for this recipe. Sake can be substituted with a dry sherry or even Chinese cooking wine.
If you are unable to consume alcohol, unfortunately I can't offer non alcoholic substitutions for Mirin and Sake, they are both essential ingredients in this recipe. :(
To make this for a crowd, I would use a piece of beef tenderloin (i.e. a long one, not individual steaks). Brown all over in a skillet then transfer to baking tray and roast to your taste (please use a meat thermometer!) at 180C/350F. Then rest for at least 8 minutes, loosely covered in foil. Make the sauce in the skillet you used to brown the tenderloin while it is resting. Slice tenderloin then serve with sauce.
Freezing rice - yes you can! I keep single serve bags and containers in my freezer that I can just pop into the microwave. Medium and short grain rice works best because they are stickier than long grain rice (frozen long grain is perfect for fried rice). Just add a tiny sprinkle of water and reheat in the microwave from frozen, it only takes about 2 minutes from frozen for a single serving size.
Asian steak nutrition per serving, assuming all the sauce is consumed (and it's so good, you will lick the plate!).