One Pot Japanese Beef and Potato Stew -Nikujaga: Classic Japanese Comfort Food

My mom made this for dinner sometimes, and I devoured most of the pot before dinner was served… Looking back, we probably couldn’t afford a lot of meat, so maybe that’s the reason why it didn’t show up often. Traditionally, the amount of meat in the dish is pretty modest -less than 1lb, but I like to put an extra meat to make the meal extra satisfying. It uses simple ingredients and involves minimum steps. Perfect for a day when you are too tired but want solid food that everyone will like. Also, the sauce base is basically a teriyaki sauce. It is supposed to have plenty of liquid to submerge ingredients while stewing. If you end up having an extra soup/sauce after eating the meat and potatoes, you can cook it down and add some vegetables and protein in it along with additional salt and soy sauce for a quick spin off dish. 1 tablespoon of neutral oil (I used sunflour coconut oil here) 1 ½ cups or about 10oz of carrots 1 inch 1 ½ lbs of potato 1-2 inch 2 medium size onions (about 12oz or 2 cups) 1 inch ish wedges ½ teaspoon of salt (Optional) 1 bag of shirataki or Ito-konjac (konnyaku) -it’s made of vegetable roots. Full of fiber. Konjac comes in different shapes, and you can pick any of them. Itokonjac I used in this video is noodle shaped. It soaks up flavor and creates a volume in the dish. 2 lbs of thinly sliced beef (you can use more or less meat if you like -I used chuck steak) ¼ cup of brown sugar ⅓ cup of soy sauce ½ cup of mirin ⅓ cups of sake ½ cup of water 1 tablespoon of toasted sesame oil 1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice Green onions (optional) Green beans (optional) Sugar snaps (optional)