When the pandemic hit in 2020 and we couldn’t go out to eat, I tried to recreate Bao’s Taipei Butter Rice Dish at home, and it was in fact one of the first few recipes that I posted on this blog. This time, I tried to revisit the dish and see what I would change about it… Things that I learned:
- Pat the steak dry – the less moisture there is, the easier it will be to form a ‘crust’ on the outside of the steak
- Let your steak rest at room temperature before cooking, this will ensure that it’s not cold inside if you’re going for a rare / medium rare finish.
- Get some good quality free range eggs… It makes a difference, not only is the yolk more golden, the taste is so much better too!
- Get a really sharp knife: this will help you slice through the steak like butter, and make the presentation much more professional too. I got myself a Japanese knife just like this one.
To really elevate this dish, I’m looking at investing in a sous-vide machine that would help me get the perfect cooking. Will report back with episode of this dish 3.0!
Steak Donburi
Ingredients
- ~225g steak
- 1 egg yolk
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp mirin
- 1 bowl of cooked rice preferably short grain
- Pepper
- Salt to taste
- 2 portions of 20g butter
- Cooking oil
- 1 clove of garlic
Instructions
- Cure the egg yolk by immersing it in soy sauce and mirin, cover and leave in the fridge (preferably for a few hours)
- Rub salt onto your steak and leave it to rest to room temperature.
- Heat up your skillet and add a bit of oil.
- When the pan is hot enough, sear the steak for 3 minutes on each side (my steak was a rather thick cut ~2inch so adjust the cooking time accordingly)
- Add some butter (20g) to the pan, let it melt then using a spoon, baste the butter over the steak. Do this for a further 1 minutes.
- Remove the steak and leave it to rest for the same amount of time you cooked it for (e.g. I cooked it for 8 minutes so I left it to rest for 8 minutes)
- In another pan melt some butter (20g) and crushed garlic. Stir until the butter is melted. Do this on low heat and you don’t want the butter to burn.
- Add the cooked rice into the pan and mix everything together until the butter is well absorbed into the rice.
- Assemble: scoop the rice into a bowl, slice the steak and align them around the bowl. Topped it all off with the cured egg yolk in the middle, pour some of the soy +mirin mix you used to cure the yolk and generously sprinkle some crushed pepper.
- Enjoy!
Did you make this recipe?
If you’ve made this recipe, remember to tag @mai.ng on Instagram www.maicookbook.com
