From Kitchen Diaries 3
17 March
Snow, sake and steak
I am at a minimalist hotel in the wilds of Hokkaido, the sort where they bring you hot yuzu-scented tea on arrival and there are four different pairs of slippers at the entrance to your room. The vast square bath in my room is permanently full of hot spring water, lapping at the edges and gently trickling over the sides and onto the floor.
Outside, there is snow on the ground. At night, the garden is lit by the stars and by low, stone lamps that send eerie shadows across the powdery snow. I take a short dash to the outdoor spring bath, jump in and stand in the steaming water for what seems like an eternity. My body is toasty, but my hair feels crunchy with frost, so I clamber out and roll in the snow. After repeating this a few times, invigorated, shivering, I get dressed and return to the hotel with its long low bat and fine, beautiful and wafer-thin sake glasses that look like something from a science lab.
Sloegin aside, sake is one of the few spirits I drink, and I Wark myself up with several glasses. As regular drinkers know only too well, sake has a habit of creeping up on you. One minute you are stone cold sober. The next, pissed. It's the only way you can cope with the inevitable bill and its long row of noughts.
Expensive devil-may-care drinking aside, you can use some of the more everyday sake in the kitchen. Made from rice, it has a similar use to the dry sherries and vermouths, but is more mellow, and I think, more interesting. Inspired by I scribble down the idea for a recipe I will make when I return home.
The Braised steak, sake and shallots is on P.88 of KD3, or can be found a little further down on this page:
www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/mar/16/nigel-slater-beef-recipes