Simmered foods—known as nimono (煮物)—is the backbone of Japanese home cooking. Fresh seasonal ingredients are cooked gently in a savory and sweet liquid until mostly evaporated and all the delicious flavors have been soaked up. They are easy to prepare, nutritious, and bring a lot of comfort to everyday dinners. Today’s recipe, Simmered Beef and Tofu or Niku Dofu (肉豆腐), is one of the classics you need to try.
What is Niku Dofu
Niku dofu (肉豆腐) (or nikudofu, which means ‘meat and tofu’) is a beloved Japanese simmered dish featuring tofu, thinly sliced beef, shiitake mushrooms, and onion in a soy sauce and dashi-based broth. The gentle cooking approach softens the foods quickly while retaining their shapes. Some people make this dish very similar to the popular Japanese hot pot, sukiyaki, with various ingredients. Because it can be prepared quickly with simple and easy-to-access ingredients, many home cooks make niku tofu at home, and it’s not something you order at a restaurant.
What’s the Difference between Niku Dofu and Sukiyaki?
Even Japanese people are sometimes confused with the definition of these two dishes as they look and taste so similar. In essence, the differences come down to the cooking technique and serving style: Niku dofu is considered a simmered dish (nimono 煮物) and is served in a bowl as a main or a side to go along with rice and other dishes. Sukiyaki, on the other hand, is a communal-style hot pot dish, in which everyone at the table cooks and eats the ingredients straight from a big cast-iron pot. It is a meal on its own, and we usually enjoy it with shirataki noodles and udon noodles.
Niku Dofu
Ingredients: Tofu (main ingredient), thinly sliced beef or pork, onion, green onion, and occasionally some type of Japanese mushrooms Cookware: A frying pan Serveware: A large serving bowl or individual bowl
Sukiyaki
Ingredients: Thinly sliced beef, onion, napa cabbage, long green onion, chrysanthemum greens (shungiku), shiitake mushrooms, shirataki noodles, grilled tofu (small portion) Cookware: A cast-iron sukiyaki pot Serveware: A small individual bowl
Both dishes are cooked in the same/similar condiments (dashi, sake, mirin, soy sauce, and sugar) with a slightly different ratio.
How to Make Simmered Beef and Tofu
Ingredients You’ll Need
Thinly sliced beef (chuck or rib eye) Medium-firm tofu (momen dofu) – more about it below Onion Shiitake mushrooms (or a combination of mushrooms such as shimeji mushrooms) Green onion Optional: I keep my recipe simple, but you can toss in leafy greens such as bok choy, komatsuna (Japanese spinach), mizuna, etc. Broth and seasonings: dashi (Japanese soup stock), regular soy sauce or tamari, sake, mirin, sugar
Overview: Cooking Steps
What Kind of Tofu Is Best for Niku Dofu
There is no rule for which type of tofu to use, so you can choose based on personal preference. If you like your tofu to have a concentrated flavor, use medium-firm tofu (momen dofu 木綿豆腐). Personally, I recommend this type of tofu because it contains less water than silken tofu and has the ability to soak up the flavor of the broth. If you prefer smooth texture, silken tofu (kinugoshi tofu 絹ごし豆腐) is great but take note that it can break easily. Do you love tofu? We have a tofu pantry post where we talk more about this amazing ingredient.
Tips on Making Simmered Beef and Tofu
Use thinly sliced beef. Japanese, Korean, and Chinese grocery stores sell thinly sliced beef. The quality of beef is important. Alternatively, you can get a rib eye and slice the meat thinly with a knife. Fattier cut is better and suitable for a simmering dish. You don’t want chewy or dry meat. Quickly simmer the beef first. Some recipes may add beef after cooking tofu and onion because the beef cooks fast. However, I like to cook the tofu and onion in a broth that contains beef flavor. Therefore, my approach is to simmer the beef quickly and set it aside. This helps transfer only the umami to the broth without the beef becoming tough and dry. You put the beef back into the broth to reheat right before serving. Simmer the ingredients with just enough seasoned broth. Some of you probably wonder why we don’t cover the ingredients with more broth. Typically, for Japanese simmered dishes, we don’t cook ingredients with plenty of cooking liquid. Since we don’t “drink” the flavored broth, we would use just enough liquid to cook the ingredients. Don’t overcook the tofu. If the tofu is simmered for too long, it will become tough and create holes on the surface and the inside. This is because the water in the tofu (about 90%) boils and forms fine bubbles. The holes are caused by the coagulation of protein, which causes the holes to remain open and hardens. To prevent this, cutting the tofu thinly allows the heat to pass through evenly in a short period of time. Also, remember to maintain simmering (under 90ºC), not boiling (100ºC). Let the dish “steep” at room temperature (optional). Ideally, Japanese simmered dishes should have a “steeping” period in which the ingredients absorb all the flavors as they cool naturally. Then, reheat it to serve. However, this requires planning, and not always possible.
What to Serve with Niku Dofu
As a main dish to serve with rice, niku dofu is high in protein. You can toss in vegetables to make it a nutritiously balanced one-pot dish, or simply serve it with one or two more side dishes:
Broccoli Blanched with Sesame Oil Chrysanthemum Greens and Tofu Salad Miso Glazed Eggplant Asparagus with Miso Dressing Chikuwa Isobeage
More Japanese Simmered Recipes
Nikujaga (Japanese Meat and Potato Stew) Buri Daikon (Simmered Yellowtail and Daikon) Simmered Fried Tofu and Greens Japanese Turnips with Soboro Ankake Sauce Simmered Koyadofu
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