This is one of those great communal meals where everyone gathers around the cooking food helping themselves. For this reason it has become incredibly popular around the world. Ideally, you should cook this in a cast iron pot on a table cooker, and traditionally in Japan the cooked meat and vegetables are dipped in beaten egg before being eaten – if you don’t fancy this, however, the food is still tasty as it is!

The only difficulty you might have if you source the meat yourself is persuading a butcher to slice it thinly enough. You can, however do this yourself with care. Simply put the meat into a freezer until nearly frozen, then using a very sharp knife cut cut into 3mm thin slices. The best cuts are Rib-eye or Chuck but you can also use brisket successfully as the fat partially dissolves in the broth adding to its flavour. This is known in Japan by its Korean name ‘kalbi’.

Although at first sight this recipe might seem complicated, in fact most of the effort is in preparing the ingredients.

For the broth:

• 150 ml (10 tablespoons) dashi
• 60 ml (4 tablespoons) shoyu
• 45 ml (3 tablespoons) mirin
• 30 ml (2 tablespoons) sake
• 1 tablespoon sugar

OR

• 1 bottle ready made sukiyaki sauce
• Approx 250 gm beef per person, cut into 3mm thin slices
• 6 thin leeks
• One pack shirataki noodles
• One pack tofu (340 gms)
• One pack of spinach or similar leafy vegetable
• One tablespoon vegetable oil
• Optionally, one egg per person