Negimaki

Negimaki is traditionally a Japanese dish consisting of scallions rolled in beef strips that have been marinated in teriyaki sauce. That’s not the way I do it – my way is much easier. Negimaki make a great appetizer for a dinner party or a really simple and very satisfying meal for your family-it’s a favorite in my household. Negimaki are not just easy in the kitchen, but they’re also easy on your wallet. With four ingredients cooked start to finish in about 20 minutes, you can’t go wrong!

Ingredients: (serves 4 for dinner)

• 2 Tablespoons butter, divided
• 2 bunches of scallions/green onions, cut into 2”-3” pieces, roots and ends removed
• 1 pound thinly sliced deli roast beef
• teriyaki sauce (I buy brand name teriyaki glaze because it’s thicker than sauce and better than anything I have made)
• rice (optional)

Directions:

If you are using rice, start to cook it according to package directions.

Over medium heat, melt one Tablespoon of butter in a large skillet. Add the scallions and cook until bright green and fragrant (~2-3 minutes). Turn off the heat. Once the scallions are cool enough to touch, take 2-3 pieces of scallion and roll them in one piece of roast beef (if your roast beef is cut thick, you may be able to cut each piece in half so that the roast beef doesn’t overpower the scallions-look at the picture above as a guide). Continue until all the scallions are gone.

Over medium heat, melt the other Tablespoon of butter in the same skillet as before. Add the rolled Negimaki to the pan in batches of 5-10. Brown the beef on all sides (~2-3 minutes in total since the roast beef is already cooked). Remove the cooked Negimaki and cook another batch. Repeat until finished.

If you are serving these as an appetizer, cut them in half so they can stand on the plate (as pictured above) and serve with the teriyaki sauce as a dip. If you are serving this as a meal, serve over rice with teriyaki sauce drizzled on top.