Benihana Dinner at Home!
Well, we are officially one year into what we thought would be “some stuff shutting down for a couple weeks”, and here I am about to celebrate another birthday! YAY! When I was growing up we would go to Benihana for family birthday celebrations often and it’s totally a sentimental thing that I miss…and TOTALLY a sentimental thing that I wanted to do for my 40th birthday but here near LA that would mean takeout and I wasn’t really feelin that. I think that’s because so much of Benihana is an EXPERIENCE, so after a couple hours combing the web- that’s what I decided to create. I have linked the original source I used on each recipe as well as included my edits and what I would do differently next time (like find someone else to clean up!)
This post will give you the recipes I used, plus my notes/edits and the breakdown of how I did this because that was crucial to pulling this off as it takes several days of prep. I think it was better than doing takeout because we got to eat everything hot and fresh off the griddle!! But the mess was massive so maybe takeout next time.
I used a pancake griddle to cook the shrimp, veggies, chicken and steak.
I used a large pan/wok for the fried rice.
I used a large stock pot for the soup.
Here’s the menu with recipe links and tips!
Salad with Ginger, Dressing Ginger and Mustard Dipping Sauces: These were all super easy to make, and my main note is that you will want to make the salad dressing and ginger sauce a day or two before serving them as the flavor will be way better that way.
For the salad I used a bagged romaine, cabbage and carrot mix.
I followed THIS recipe by Angela at Baked With Love for the salad dressing and wouldn’t change a thing! It’s absolutely PERFECT!!
For the ginger sauce I also used Angela’s recipe from Baked With Love and it’s brilliant as-is, no changes needed!
I used THIS RECIPE for the mustard sauce and it was VERY good, but POWERFUL, so you may want to start with a little less of the powdered mustard and add it slowly, tasting as you go! Also a note to mention the first ingredient listing should probably have omitted the word “optional”, just ignore that!
Clear Soup with mushrooms and crispy onions- I used THIS recipe by Sommer at A Spicy Perspective. The only change I made to this recipe was adding some salt to the broth and fried onion strings to the bowls when serving! I used the Trader Joe’s ones but I know you can get these at a standard grocery store too….add those to your grocery list!!
You will need the GARLIC BUTTER for the shrimp, veggies and rice!! Here’s how to make the Garlic Butter!
Shrimp Appetizer- I used THIS recipe from Food.com (you will need Garlic Butter for this, see recipe link above).
Mushroom, onion and zucchini side- I didn’t follow a recipe for this but it was very similar to the shrimp with out lemon. oil the griddle or pan, add the onion and cook a couple minutes, then add the mushrooms and zucchini. 1-2 tsp of butter and a splash of soy, cook a few more minutes and serve! If you absolutely need one there are instructions linked below in the post by 40Aprons that has the rice and chicken too!
FRIED RICE- this recipe looked PERFECT until I realized it was missing the garlic butter and that was like skkkrrrrrt-record scratch. Seriously though, this rice would NOT be what it is with out that butter so make sure not to skip that step or you’re going to be bummed out. Instead take 1/2 an onion (finely chopped), 1 cup frozen pea/carrot mix, 2 large eggs, 2 cups of cooked rice (I had 3 cups cooked total so I could add if needed, and didn’t need), chopped green onion. Heat a large pan or wok- add 2 tablespoons avocado oil. Add onions and veggies and cook for 5 min. Move veggies to the side of the pan- crack the eggs in the center and scramble for a few minutes- add cooked rice and add 3 tablespoons garlic butter and a drizzle of soy sauce, stir/cook for another minute or two, toss in the green onion and pack into bowls!
Chicken & Steak: I did use the recipe linked above from 40Aprons for the Hibachi Chicken and for the steak we just cooked it on the griddle with salt and pepper.
IMPORTANT NOTES:
A few days before you are going to make this feast, gather your ingredients and make sure you have time to do the cooking ahead and on the day you have this for dinner.
These items need to be made the day before so the flavors can marry and be absolute perfection:
The Clear Soup Broth- it takes about 90minutes-2 hours to make, then it needs to cool and be strained and then goes in the fridge overnight.
The Ginger Sauce and Salad Dressing- these are both super quick and easy to make in a blender.
Prep the day you are making this for dinner- I don’t have an actual Hibachi grill so I was never planning to slice and dice anything while it was ON my pancake griddle so earlier in the day, we did all the chopping:
Mince onion for fried rice
Cut zucchini into quarter pieces
chop onion for zucchini and mushroom side dish
halve or quarter mushrooms for zucchini and mushroom side dish
thin slice white mushrooms for soup
Chop green onion for rice and soup
Make the mustard sauce
I suggest doing this in the morning and then everything is prepped, chopped and ready to cook!
Mid day, or at least 2-3 hours before you start cooking, you’ll want to make the garlic butter and cook the rice. The garlic butter takes about an hour to make and rice, which I make in the Instant Pot takes a little less than 30 minutes.
When you’re ready to get it goin’ on, the first thing you want to do is warm the soup broth, I put it on low so it would warm up while I did other things.
Next, get out all your bowls and plates.
Each person will need salad bowl, a soup bowl (these can be the same one bowl that you rinse between if need be!) a bowl for your mustard sauce, a bowl for your ginger sauce, a bowl for your fried rice and a plate for everything else!
Fill the salad bowls with the lettuce, carrots and cabbage so all you need to do is scoop on the dressing.
Have your fried rice and soup bowls out and ready.
Next, make the fried rice and when it’s pretty much done, serve the salad and soup. Then pack the rice tightly into the bowls- option to flippy flop it around on the spatula, jk I did NOT do any tricks other than making all this food in one night and then ACTUALLY cleaning the kitchen really well. While everyone clears their soup and salad bowls (PRO TIP if you have anyone old enough, have them rinse those and load em in the dishwasher while you cook up the shrimp and veggies.
Plate the shrimp and veggies on your main dinner plates and snack on those plus the rice while you make the chicken and steak.
Cook the chicken and/or steak on the griddle and as soon as it’s ready, slice it up, plate it and enjoy!!
Highly recommend also getting some green tea ice cream for dessert and gathering for a polaroid photo to celebrate (this was from a few years ago and YES my daughter is totally asleep! haha!)
