Have you ever woken up thinking about a certain dish, and being unable to get it out of your mind? That’s what happened to me today – I couldn’t stop thinking about beef carpaccio. So I happened to mention it to Ward, and voila!

Like magic:

asian-beef-salad

This is what he whipped up for lunch: Tataki-style beef with Mentsuyu dipping sauce. We didn’t have daikon on hand – it’s the traditional vegetable to use in a Japanese salad – so he used radishes instead and they were the perfect substitute.

Since this dish is very rare, we’ve found it’s best to use a good cut of beef; here we’ve used two tenderloin steaks.

Season the meat with salt, pepper and crushed garlic, then sear it on all sides in a very hot pan. Remove from the pan and wrap in foil to continue cooking on its own while you put together the dressing/dipping sauce and cut up your desired vegetables – here Ward used radishes, romaine lettuce and scallions.

Thinly slice the beef, arrange with your vegetables, and drizzle over with Mentsuyu sauce (recipe below). Serve the remaining sauce in small individually-sized dipping bowls. We didn’t use wasabi this time, but it’s great with wasabi, too, if you have some on hand.

This following recipe for Mentsuyu dipping sauce is adapted from Harumi’s Japanese Cooking:

MENTSUYU DRESSING/DIPPING SAUCE

Ingredients:

1 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup mirin
3 tbsp superfine or fruit sugar
1 cup water
2-1/2 tbsp dried bonito flakes or other fish flakes

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together in a microwave-safe bowl. Do not cover. Microwave at medium power for 3 minutes. Cool and strain. You can refrigerate it until you need it.

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