Shabu-Shabu Water-Swished Beef and Vegetables

Ingredients

• 600 g beef ribeye or sirloin, Wagyu preferred, sliced paper-thin at 1–1.5 mm maximum, ideally by the butcher on a deli slicer
• 1.5 litres cold water
• 20 g dried kombu, wiped clean with a damp cloth
• 300 g Chinese cabbage (napa), leaves separated and cut into large pieces
• 100 g enoki mushrooms, base trimmed, clusters separated
• 200 g thin udon noodles, for shimedge finish at the end
• 80 g chrysanthemum greens (shungiku), added in final stages of the pot
• For the ponzu sauce
• 60 ml yuzu juice (or a mix of lemon and lime juice), freshly squeezed
• 30 ml rice vinegar
• 60 ml soy sauce
• 15 ml mirin
• 200 ml katsuobushi-steeped dashi, steeped and strained
• For the goma sauce
• 80 g sesame paste (nerigoma) or tahini
• 30 ml soy sauce
• 15 ml mirin
• 15 ml rice vinegar
• 30 ml dashi, to thin to a pourable consistency

Method

1. 1
   Combine the cold water and kombu in the shabu-shabu pot or a wide shallow saucepan. Allow the kombu to steep for 30 minutes at room temperature. Set the pot over medium heat and remove the kombu just before the liquid reaches a simmer — the stock should be faintly saline and clear, with no bitterness drawn from boiled kombu.
2. 2
   Prepare the ponzu sauce: combine yuzu juice, rice vinegar, soy sauce, mirin, and katsuobushi-steeped dashi. Stir to integrate. Taste before serving — the sauce must balance bright citric acidity with clean soy salinity; a flat or one-dimensional ponzu undermines the entire plate. Prepare the goma sauce by whisking sesame paste with soy sauce, mirin, rice vinegar, and enough dashi to reach a smooth, pourable consistency. Decant both sauces into individual dipping bowls.
3. 3
   Arrange the sliced beef on a plate in overlapping layers so each slice can be lifted individually. Arrange the Chinese cabbage, enoki mushrooms, and chrysanthemum greens on a separate platter. Place the pot of simmering kombu dashi at the centre of the table over a portable burner, maintaining a gentle simmer throughout.
4. 4
   Add the vegetables — Chinese cabbage first, then enoki mushrooms — to the simmering pot in batches, keeping them separate from the beef. Cook until just tender. The cabbage should be wilted but retain a slight resistance at its core; the enoki should be just softened. Remove and eat alongside the beef.
5. 5
   This is where the dish lives or dies: lift one slice of beef with chopsticks and swish it through the simmering liquid with a gentle, steady motion — 5 to 8 passes, no more than 5–10 seconds total. For A5 Wagyu, 3–5 seconds suffice. The slice is ready the instant it changes colour from deep red to pale pink throughout, with no residual raw centre visible at the fold. Any further time in the pot destroys the just-set texture that defines shabu-shabu.
6. 6
   Transfer the cooked beef immediately to the dipping sauce of choice — ponzu for a clean, citric finish; goma sauce for a richer, nutty contrast. Eat at once.
7. 7
   At the meal's end, the cooking broth will have enriched with rendered beef fat and vegetable essence. Add the thin udon noodles and the chrysanthemum greens directly to the pot. Cook until the noodles are just tender. Serve the broth and noodles as a closing soup course — the shimedge — ladled into individual bowls. The broth should be savoury, faintly fatty, and herbal from the shungiku.