Teriyaki sauce can be used like a BBQ sauce or marinate sauce. This is the original Japanese recipe seen in Japanese cooking books.

Quantity is by volume proportional

*Grate ginger and squeeze its juice.

** Clean well to remove blood. Boil liver in boiling water one minute and drain. Then boil liver in this sauce with a few slices of ginger.

To add ginger is a Japanese traditional way to remove fishy or bloody smell. You need to adjust amount of the sugar to your taste.

You may add a small amount of grated garlic and sesame oil or red hot pepper to add a little bit of Chinese or Korean flavor.

Mirin is a very important ingredient to make Teriyaki. But, if you have no way to find it, sugar can be used as a substitute material.

You might have experienced a Japanese style salad dressing at Teppan-yaki restaurants. You desired to recreate that dressing but you had no idea. OK, Here is the secret.

Mix following ingredients and keep it in a refrigerator. That's all you need to do. Instead of using grated material, you may put all of them in a food processor or mixer to save time.

* Light oil such as corn, cotton, sunflower, etc.

You may adjust the amount of miso, vinegar, or ginger juice to fit to your taste. Dash with lemon or lime juice will make a difference in the flavor. My friend poured this on hot steamed rice. This dressing can be used for roast beef. So, why don't you try to make roast beef salad.

Goma-Dare

You will be served a brown sauce and a white sauce at the Japanese stake (Teppan Yaki) restaurant. Brown sauce is a mixture of soy sauce and citrus vinegar. White sauce is sesame based thick sauce. I have received a mail from a lady asking for the recipe. It is easy to buy at Japanese grocery store. This sauce is soled as "Sesame sauce for Shabu-Shabu". If you feel it is too thick, you may add soup stock. This is very good for stake, roast beef, and chicken. Also try with lightly boiled spinach or other vegetables. Here is the recipe.

Mix followings well and boil for a few minutes.

*: Find roasted sesame seed. Bray 3 to 4 table spoons of sesame seed until it becomes like peanuts butter.

Add dash of salt, pepper, garlic powder. Add one tea spoon of sesame oil. You may add one tea spoon of ginger juice for more rich flavor. If you do not have mirin, or sake, don't worry about that. You still can make a good flavor. Adjust these ingredients and enjoy your own sesame sauce. 

Sake is a rice wine. (Not a sweet Plum Wine) It tastes like dry white wine if chilled well. When you eat oyster, either raw or cooked, try Sake instead of white wine.

White wine is a great drink for seafood. However, if you drink it with raw fish or especially with shell fish, it develops uncomfortable fishy taste in your mouth. Sake doesn't. Sake is also good with Escargot.

Mirin is one kind of rice wine but very sweet and used exclusively for cooking. Mirin adds sweetness however, the most important roll of Mirin in the teriyaki sauce is to add "Teri" (surface gloss, glaze, or luster).

This brown paste is made from soy beans or wheat. Fermentation with salt creates a lot of natural glutamic acid taste and good flavor. Miso soup is a basic soup served in Japanese dinner. Dark red miso has a strong flavor and salty. White miso is somewhat sweet. Brown or light brown miso is used for most of the cooking. It is difficult to find miso other than oriental food store. Hannaford grocery store sometimes carries miso and some oriental materials.

Vinegar made from rice wine is recommended to use for Japanese cooking. Especially when you make Susi rice, never use wine vinegar. Some oriental grocery stores carry "Susinoko" which is powder vinegar to make Sushi rice. If rice vinegar is not available, I use "White House distilled White Vinegar" that is not expensive. The word "susi" came from old Japanese word that means "it is sour".

Ton-Katu sauce tastes similar to Worcestershire sauce. This is thick sauce and contains a lot of vegetable extracts. This sauce is used for Ton-Katu (Japanese deep-fried pork) or Okonomiyaki. The exact sauce is available at Japanese grocery stores. However, if you mix Worcestershire sauce and Ketchup, it tastes the same.

Wilmington, NC: Tokyo Deli - Ph. (910) 254-1230 Address: 2394 Carolina Beach Rd.

Wilmington, NC: Saigon Market - Ph. (910) 793-9911 Address: 4519 Franklin Ave.

Cary, NC: Toyo Shokuhin & Gifts - Ph. (919) 319-1620 Address: 748-L East Chatham St.

Okonomi-Yaki is a kind of Japanese style Pizza, loved by people for many years. Okonomi means "your favorite choice", Yaki is "baked". There are many variations in each part of Japan, They adds noodle in Hiroshima. Inch thick Okonomi-Yaki is a favorite snack in Osaka. Monja-Yaki became very popular recently although it was available for many decades in old part of downtown Tokyo.

All the technique you need is the same as fixing pancakes. This is an example to use thin sliced pork, but you can use any sliced meat, seafood such as shrimp, sliced scallops, oyster, or even yesterday's leftover burger, hotdog, or vegetables in your refrigerator. Here is the recipe for one serving.

Yu-Rin-Ji (Chinese Fried Chicken Dipping Sauce)

 This sauce is used for Chinese fried chicken and it is very popular in Japan. It is good for chicken (fried or steamed), roast beef, fish, or just pour on the steamed rice.

1. Soy sauce ------------------------ 8 Table spoons

2. White Vinegar -------------------- 5 Table spoons

3. Sugar ----------------------------- 2 Table spoons

4. Fine chopped Green Onion ------- 1/2 Tea Spoon

5. Fine chopped Ginger ------------- 1/3 Tea Spoon

6. Fine chopped Garlic -------------- 1/3 Tea Spoon

7. Sesame Oil ------------------------ 2 Tea Spoons

 Mix 1 through 6. Wait at least 30 minutes. Mix 7. Use as a dipping sauce. Keep this in the refrigerator. Actually, if you keep this in the refrigerator several days, it tastes much better. This can be used as a Chinese style Teriyaki sauce.

 Japanese Grits?

If you have any question about Japanese cooking, please feel free to write to; yamawilm@wilmington.net