Niku Jaga: Beef and Potatoes

Any housewife in Japan knows how to cook this dish. It is one of the basics of Japanese home cooking. I fell in love with it when Mum made it for me in New Zealand before I had come to Japan. The potatoes soak up the flavour beautifully, it is a real Japanese comfort food.
Ingredients:
500g thinly sliced beef (This is sold already sliced in Japan. It is hard to buy it thin enough overseas so you may have to order it from the butcher)
1 onion sliced (in Japanese cooking they like to chop the onion in half through the core, cut off the ends and slice the onion with the grain in 1 cm slices)
12 small potatoes, peeled and halved
tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup sake
1/2 cup mirin
1/2 cup soya sauce
1 tbsp honey
Ginger (optional)
Fry beef in oil (if adding ginger add a little with the beef) until browned. Don't over cook, leaving some parts red is fine. Remove from pan, set aside.
Add onions to pan in the same oil. Don't brown. Add potatoes after 2-3 mins and coat with oil. Add Sake and Mirin and fill pan with water to cover the potatoes. Cover and bring to the boil. Simmer until potatoes are almost done, about 10 mins.
Add the honey and soya sauce a little at a time checking the flavour. Too much soy sauce will ruin the dish, and too little will leave it tasteless. At this point the flavour should be slightly watery as it will get stronger as it boils down. Simmer uncovered until liquid has halved. Add beef in the last 5 mins to soak up the flavour.
Garnish with sliced ginger.