Sukiyaki in an American Kitchen from 'Hiroko's American Kitchen'
[Photograph: Frances Janisch]  Traditional sukiyaki is a hot
pot-style dish of beef and vegetables simmered in a broth of soy
sauce, sugar, and mirin. It's a popular meal in Japan, but
because of the lack of tabletop cooking vessels in the US,
sukiyaki is challenging to replicate here. Hiroko Shimbo's
version in Hiroko's American Kitchen drops the hot pot entirely
to create a one dish meal more suitable to the American home
cook. The array of vegetables are familiar—zucchini, squash,
sweet potato, mushrooms, onion, and watercress—and the steak is
easy to brown. Shimbo enhances the traditional simmer sauce with
her BBC, or "best basting and cooking sauce," a riff on what
most of us would recognize as teriyaki sauce.  Why I picked this
recipe: The simple American tweaks to a classic Japanese
preparation of sukiyaki are a perfect example of Shimbo's
project as a whole.  What worked: Steak, vegetables, and soy-
laced broth made for an easy, satisfyi