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Prep time
35 minutes
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Cook time
15 minutes
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Serves
2
Author Notes
Japanese food is one of my favorite cuisines, so you better believe I have had countless amounts of beef negimaki throughout my life. Beef negimaki is a beef roll, “maki,” which is made up of thinly sliced beef and blanched scallions, “negi,” which is coated with a teriyaki-like sauce. This recipe is my take on traditional beef negimaki, but nothing straying too far from the norm. It’s typically served as an appetizer, but I like to eat it as an entrée with freshly cooked short-grain white rice. I personally feel like eating beef negimaki with the white rice completes the dish because the rice is the perfect blank canvas for the sweet/salty sauce, buttery beef, and fresh herbiness of the scallions.
I tested out a couple cuts of beef slices, such as flank, ribeye, and skirt, so any of those three cuts work for this recipe, but of course, the ribeye yielded the most buttery steak flavor. In addition to the different types of beef, I also experimented with paper-thin slices (1/16 inch thick) versus thin slices (⅛ inch thick). Depending on how you like your beef cooked, rare, medium-rare, medium, etc., I would suggest the following:
-You prefer rare/medium-rare: Go with the thin sliced (⅛ inch thick) beef. This thinness keeps the beef juicy with some more texture and chew (the good kind) compared to the paper-thin slice.
-You prefer medium/medium-well/well: Go with the paper thin sliced (1/16 inch thick) beef. This thinness still keeps the beef soft but still cooked to your liking.
I have and always will be a medium-rare beef type of person, so I don't recommend cooking the beef anything further than medium, especially if you're using an expensive cut of beef like ribeye! Therefore, for this recipe, I went with thinly sliced ribeye, but again, you can customize the type of beef to your liking.
For those of you wondering how you can get the beef to be sliced paper-thin or thin, you have two options: Freeze your desired cut of beef and slice it yourself on a deli slicer (with the correct settings), or buy pre-sliced beef at an Asian supermarket. I highly recommend buying the frozen pre-sliced beef at an Asian supermarket to save on costs. The taste of the frozen versus defrosted beef is hardly noticeable, but I can guarantee that your wallet will notice. —Catherine Yoo
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Ingredients
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1 pinch
kosher salt
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1
small carrot (about 4 ounces), cut into 3-inch-long matchsticks
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10
scallions (about 4.75 ounces), cut into 3-inch pieces, plus more, thinly sliced, for garnish
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1
(1-inch) piece ginger, peeled and finely chopped
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2
garlic cloves, finely chopped
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1/4 cup
mirin
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3 tablespoons
oyster sauce
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1 tablespoon
soy sauce
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1/4 teaspoon
sesame oil
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1/8 teaspoon
black pepper
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1/8 teaspoon
sesame seeds, crushed, plus more for garnish
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10
Angus ribeye slices (about 10 ounces), ⅛ inch thick and about 1½ to 2 inches wide
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1/4 cup
potato starch
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1/4 cup
grapeseed or any neutral oil
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2 cups
cooked short-grain white rice
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Aji nori furikake, for garnish
Directions
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Fill a small pot with water, add the salt, and bring to a boil. Fill a bowl with ice water. Par-boil the carrots for 1 minute and 30 seconds, adding the scallions during the last minute to blanch. Plunge the carrots and scallions in the ice water. Once completely cooled, transfer to a plate.
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In a small bowl, mix the ginger, garlic, mirin, oyster sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil, black pepper, and sesame seeds. Set the sauce aside.
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Set aside at least 10 toothpicks. Arrange a slice of beef with the long side facing you. Place 4 to 5 pieces each of the carrots and scallions on one end of the beef slice perpendicular to the beef. When grouping the scallions together, be sure to include both the white and green parts. Tightly roll one end of the beef slice with the carrots and scallions inside the roll so they do not fall out. Secure by skewering the toothpick in the middle of the roll. Repeat with the remaining beef, carrots, and scallions.
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Place the potato starch on a small plate. Lightly coat each beef negimaki with the starch.
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In a large skillet over medium-high heat, warm 2 tablespoons of the grapeseed oil; swirl to coat the pan. Once the oil is shimmering, cook half of the rolls, adjusting the heat as needed, for about 1½ minutes on each side, until dark golden brown and the beef is medium-rare. You can cook the roll longer depending on how you like your beef cooked.
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Reduce the heat to medium-low and pour in half of the sauce. Cook, turning the rolls halfway through, for 2 to 3 minutes more, until the sauce is thickened and reduced.
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Transfer the rolls and sauce to a plate. Wipe out the skillet and repeat with the remaining rolls and sauce. Let cool for 5 minutes, then carefully remove the toothpick from each roll.
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Divide the beef negimaki and rice between 2 plates. Generously garnish with the sliced scallions, sesame seeds, and furikake.
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