Butter Yaki
Are you ready for a special treat?
Let me introduce you to the wonderful world of Butter Yaki. My dear friends, Peter and Gail, introduced us to this yummy dish when we were stationed in Hawaii. Peter and Gail owned this lovely home in Kailua on Oahu. Their dining room was surrounded by windows so everywhere you looked, there were beautiful plants and flowers. What a delightful evening we had! Gail and Peter set up two electric griddles down the center of the table. They had shrimp, scallops and thinly sliced beef. There was an assortment of vegetables: mushrooms, onions, zucchini, bean sprouts and snow peas. Gail had little bowls set up at each place setting with soy sauce (in Hawaii they call it “shoyu”) and other yummy ingredients that make up the butter yaki sauce. We also had small bowls of white sticky rice and chopsticks, of course.
We have carried on this tradition with our own family. It’s high on the request list for my daughter especially at her birthday. The cooking of the food is really the party. I try every year to find something more exotic to add in to delight my girl. The most recent addition is enoki mushrooms. She’s not much of a mushroom fan but cannot resist these little beauties.
A few years ago, my brother and sister and their families came to spend Christmas with us and we had a butter yaki night for them. Recently when visiting my brother, my niece told me that she still thinks about that meal. That’s pretty cool considering it was 5 years ago. But I have to say, cooking butter yaki is an event. It’s a culinary adventure and I think you should try it!
Pro Tip:
If you want to try it and you don’t have the electric griddles, no worries, you can cook all the ingredients in a skillet or a grill pan on the grill.
Butter Yaki
For the meat and veggies:
The first step is to put butter on the griddle. Then start loading the griddle with meats and vegetables. Now that we know about safe food preparation, we use one griddle for the meat and one for the vegetables. Sauté all of the meat and vegetables in butter. If you are seated around the table, your guests can cook what they want on their side of the griddle. Sometimes we prep everything on a grill pan and cook it outside. If we do that we just put everything in bowls for a buffet style meal.
This is a great meal to have if you want to dress it up or dress it down. It’s healthy and you will, no doubt, enjoy your veggies and meats cooked in butter.....but don’t forget the sauce, it completes the flavor profile perfectly!
For the sauce:
1 cup soy sauce or coconut aminos
¼ cup coconut sugar (or regular sugar)
¼ cup rice wine vinegar
2-3 Tablespoons of shredded daikon radish (I use regular radish if I can’t find daikon)
The juice of one fresh lime (2-3 Tablespoons)
Add soy sauce or coconut aminos, rice wine vinegar and sugar to a pot. Boil and stir until sugar is dissolved. Add in shredded radish and the juice of a lime (about 2-3 Tablespoons). Pour in individual dipping bowls and serve.
Directions:
Thaw shrimp and scallops
Slice beef very thinly
Slice mushrooms, onions, zucchini, broccoli, cabbage (really whatever you have on hand)
Get your griddle, pan or grill pan hot, add butter. Once melted, add your vegetables. We usually cook everything separately, but you could do it all together if you’d like. Once the vegetables are done, add the shrimp (cook 2 mins per side), cook the scallops (get that good sear before you flip) and sear the beef.
Serve buffet style with chopsticks and rice of choice. Dip the veggies, seafood and meats in the sauce and enjoy!
