The cooking process of teppanyaki is lightning quick so your kitchen prep and timing are extremely important. Like my previous post about the typical teppanyaki appetizers, this isn't one of my regular recipe posts. It's more just notes about what I do for the process of making a Japanese steakhouse style steak and scallops dinner.
There are just a few basic seasonings and liquids that are used through the cooking process and should be easily accessible. I like to keep the liquids in squirt bottles.
- kosher or sea salt
- coarse grind black pepper
- granulated garlic
- oil - 1 cup of a high temp oil like peanut or canola seasoned with a teaspoon of sesame oil
- salty baste - 3:1 ratio of beef stock to soy sauce
- sweet baste - 1:1 ratio of terriyaki and chicken stock
- water
- Golden Shrimp Sauce
- Ginger Dipping Sauce - In a blender, mix 1/4 cup onion, 1/4 cup beef stock, 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1.5 tablespoon rice wine vinegar, and two quarter size pieces of fresh peeled ginger.
You want multiple temperature zones, which is why I said that just using a griddle plate on a charcoal grill or an electric skillet isn't ideal. A large griddle on a multiple burner gas grill could work. I like to use three zones as shown below.
Leveling the flattop is important. The drain channel for my griddle is at the front and the collection bin is on the right, so the front right side needs to be slightly lower than the rest. If not, liquids won't drain off and will just pool up. On the other hand, if you tilt it too much, all of your liquids will run off too fast.
I preheat my griddle with all burners on low for about 15 minutes while I get my food set up and then adjust the controls to the low-med high-med high-off settings for about 5 minutes before cooking.
Fried Rice
Prep ahead:
Cook 1 1/2 cups of Jasmine rice and chill (chill the rice...not telling you to calm down). It's important to quickly cool the rice to avoid food safety concerns with bacillus cereus. Just sticking a pot of hot rice in the fridge can let the rice stay warm long enough to become contaminated. Instead spread the rice out on a baking sheet and put in the fridge to cool quickly.
Cook:
- 3 cups of cooked jasmine rice
- 3/4 cup frozen peas and carrots
- 2 eggs
Squirt oil in the center and spread it around with the spatula until the griddle has a thin, shimmering coat of oil. Add the rice and veggies, sprinkle with salt, pepper, and garlic, and then toss around with the spatula. Squirt some salty baste on the rice and toss around a few times. Push rice off to the "keep warm" zone and scramble the eggs in the center, seasoning with a little salt and pepper. Bring the rice back in, squirt with some of the sweet baste, toss all together, breaking the egg up into pieces. Push it all back to the keep warm zone.
This picture shows the type of spatula that I like to use, it's also called a "turner". Notice how you can see spots where there was soy sauce and then most spots are still plain white. Flip this around until the color is even and light brown like shown in the first picture. I usually do several small squirts of the salty baste until I get the color I want and then finish with the sweet baste. |
You don't have a lot of time to mess around when cooking the egg, it should only take about 30-45 seconds and you have to keep it moving. |
Teppanyaki Vegetables
Prep ahead:
Cut 2 zucchini into 1/2" x 3" pieces.
Cut 2 onions into 1/2 inch slices.
Cut 8 ounces of button mushrooms into quarters.
Cook:
Scrape griddle clean (from fried rice) and reapply a squirt or two of oil. Place zucchini and onions in orderly fashion on the low burner side. Place mushrooms on the medium high section and season with salt, pepper, and garlic. Skip to steak section.
Once the steak and scallops are cooked, shift the zucchini and onion to the medium high burner. Cut the onions into quarters (you can cut directly on a flattop like this). Season with salt, pepper, and garlic. Squirt with some of the salty baste. Toss to coat. Sprinkle with sesame seeds if you like and serve.
Since the veggies have been cooking on low, it should only take a few minutes to finish these off once everything else is done. |
Teppanyaki Steak
Prep ahead:
Marinate 1+ lb sirloin steak in 1/2 cup beef stock, 1/4 cup ponzu sauce, 1/4 cup oil, 1/2 teaspoon black pepper for 4-6 hours.
Cook:
- Remove steak from marinade and wide dry. Place steak down, season top with salt, pepper, and garlic, and cook for 4 minutes. Toss the mushrooms around and squirt with some of the salty baste. Flip the zucchini and onions.
- Flip steak, season with salt, pepper, and garlic, and cook for another 4 minutes.
- Cut the steak into bite size pieces, toss with the mushrooms, season lightly again with salt, pepper, and garlic, and squirt with some of the sweet baste. Cook until desired doneness, another 1-2 minutes. Push to the keep warm side to hold.
I quarter the mushrooms instead of slicing them because the flat ones stick to the skillet. |
Finish off the plated steak with some scallions if you like. |
Teppanyaki Scallop
Prep ahead:
Melt 4 tablespoons of butter, 1 teaspoon lemon juice, and mix with 1 minced garlic clove and 1/4 teaspoon minced fresh ginger.
Keep very cold until ready to cook them. Dab the surfaces of the scallops dry with a towel (for best browning). Place on a clean, oiled part of the medium high section and cook for 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Flip and cook one minute. Pour the butter mixture over and cook until done, about another 2 minutes. Remove to the keep warm section of the griddle.
Tasty! |
Go back to the vegetable section and finish cooking the zucchini and onion.
Remove all and serve with Golden Shrimp Sauce and ginger dipping sauce.
This may sound like a ton of steps but it really is all about the prep. If you have watched a teppanyaki cook at a restaurant, they roll their cart of supplies out and the cook only takes a total of about 20 minutes tops. It's all about the timing.