Steak and sake

As with most ingredients the best pairing for steak is going to depend on the way it’s cooked. For the most part you're probably going to reach for a red wine but we were in Japan and so the automatic go to was sake.

The accompaniments were more important than the steak itself though that was a couple of magnificent cuts of heavily marbled Kobe beef which we were lucky enough to enjoy twice - at Medium Rare at the Hotel Oriental in Kobe and Biftek Kawamura in Akashi

There were two elements of the dish that particularly kicked in with the sake we were drinking, both umami-rich: fried garlic chips and soy sauce. On both occasions the steak was followed by fried rice.

The style that worked best was Akashi Tai’s Honjozo Genshu Tokubetsu* a full-flavoured sake with, at 19%, a higher alcohol content than some lighter more delicate sakes. (Honjozo generally indicates a higher degree of alcohol, genshu that no water has been added and tokubetsu that it’s a premium sake where the rice has been polished to 60% of its original size. It can be served cool (which is how we had it with the steak) or warm.

Serving steak this way is actually a great way to enjoy it as the garlic and soy enhances the Maillard reaction you get from grilling meat and umami-rich sake amplifies that. 

*there’s a good explanation of the style in Sake Times 

For wine matches see The best wine pairing for steak.

I travelled to Japan as a guest of the Akashi sake brewery.

Junmai sake with cheung fun, asparagus and shiitake mushrooms

It’s partly because not enough restaurants offer the option but I don’t drink sake often enough in Asian restaurants. (And yes, I know Asian is an imprecise term but that’s how many describe the food they offer)

Anyway proof, yet again that it is a reliable pairing at dinner last week at Wokyko Kauto in Bristol where I drank an Evening Sky junmai sake with a range of dishes including a brilliantly clever vegan dish of roasted cheung fun (rice noodle roll), apsaragus, shiitake mushrooms and Sichuan jus that had all the depth of flavour of a meat dish.

It also worked with an intensely flavoured onglet steak in black bean sauce (as surprisingly, did the tail end of a gin and tonic, made with their own Woky gin which has been developed for them by the local Psychopomp distillery and which is flavoured with nashi pear).

And - although you hardly needed a liquid accompaniment - with a moreish bowl of Korean fried chicken ramen with a deeply flavoured umami broth which is apparently made with serrano ham bones.

I’d like to try one of the other sakes when I go back (and it is a question of when rather than if. I definitely need that tang (umami broth) fix!)

I ate at Wokyko Kauto as a guest of the restaurant

Panko-fried yellowtail with truffle honey and sparkling sake

I honestly didn't know which dish to pick out of this extraordinary pop-up at The Dead Doll’s House Islington last week, hosted by wine importer Bibendum PLB who now also bring in a wide range of sakes. So I’m going for this one because it was the first and one of the simplest.

The meal was prepared in a corner of the private dining room by Endo Kazutoshi, former head sushi chef at Zuma and was one of the most spectacular Japanese meals I’ve ever had.

The dish was a couple of slices of incredibly fresh yellowtail tuna coated in panko crumbs, deep-fried and served with truffle honey and citrus zest.

Deep fried foods are always good with effervescent drinks and this gently sparkling Atago no Matsu sake from Nizawa Brewery was no exception. I knew umami was the perfect foil for sake but the sweetness of the truffle honey with the slightly sweet sake was a revelation.

The Nizawa brewery which was founded in 1873 was badly affected by the Great East earthquake and tsunami in 2011 and had to relocate but now has a state of the art new brewery with equipment that can apparently polish a rice grain down to 8% of its original size!

Apparently Atago no Matsu means ‘waiting love’ which is rather charming. Turns out it’s available on Amazon though at rather more than the prices you find in the states. Good sake has still to become affordable in the UK.

Apologies for rubbish pic. Very low light and a communal sharing board which made photography particularly difficult. (Excuses, excuses ... )

I was invited to the pop-up as a guest of Bibendum.

Dassai 50% unfiltered sake with lamb cutlets with Korean spices

I imagine you all know how well sake works with sashimi but it came as quite a surprise to me - wagyu aside - how well it could handle red meat and spice

This was one of a sensational series of dishes at Roka, Mayfair hosted by premium sake brewery Dassai which brilliantly demonstrated the effect of different levels of polishing rice with different dishes. The higher levels like the Dassai 23% were best with the delicate flavour of raw fish. The extra body and structure of sakes made from less highly polished rice like the unfiltered 50% supported more robust meat dishes like this fragrant, spicy lamb

I’d not come across the Dassai sakes before and was really impressed by the quality (they’re all Junmai Daiginjo grade). And I was so blown away by the food I went back for lunch with my daughter the next day!

Roka has made a major feature of its sake list which apparently accounts for 50% of its drink sales. A number are available by the glass so it’s a good place to go and experiment. They also hold regular sake and wine pairing dinners. The next ‘sake session’ is on 5th September and costs £90 a head including sake. Ring reservations on 020 7305 5644 to book. (Yes! Quaint notion. Pick up the phone! Try it!)

I attended the dinner as a guest of Roka restaurants.