Homemade Teriyaki Sauce!

Teri-yaki (照り焼き) is a Japanese cooking process of grilling (yaki, 焼き) and glazing the meat with a soy based sauce to make it shiny and glistening (teri, 照り) .

The basic Japanese teriyaki sauce ratio is 2:1:1 -- 2 parts of soy sauce, 1 part of mirin and 1 part of sake -- when used in cooking process as a glaze or a flavoring sauce. When making it as a dipping sauce, use equal part (1-1-1) of soy sauce, mirin, sake; then add and adjust the sugar to your taste.

Remember, any sauce you are making, don't over-flavor it so it can stay general-purposed and useful in many preparations. You can always adjust and add more but you can not take out what is already in there.

The store-bought American version of teriyaki sauce is leaning toward the sweet end of the spectrum, if that is what you are familiar with. I suggest you use the basic proportions and adjust the sugar level. Don't over sweeten it. If you have one of those bottles, try adding more soy sauce and sake to it next time.

Ingredients:
Basic for cooking: 

• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons of mirin or replaced with 2 tablespoons of rice wine and 1 tsp sugar
• 2 tablespoons of sake or rice wine
• 2 to 3 teaspoons of brown sugar, adjust to your taste

Basic for dipping sauce:

• 2 tablespoons of soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons of mirin or replaced with 2 tablespoons of rice wine and 1 tsp sugar
• 2 tablespoons of sake or rice wine
• 2 to 3 teaspoons of brown sugar, adjust to your taste
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of cornstarch 
• 1 tablespoon water to mix with cornstarch

To punch it up:

• 1/4 tsp freshly grated ginger or 1/8 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp freshly minced garlic or 1/8 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp sesame oil
• 1/4 tsp toasted sesame seeds
• Replace sugar with maple syrup or honey
• Optional, add a touch of pineapple juice or vinegar

Directions:

1. To cook with it: Mix up and add it to stew browned fish or meat or brush on skewed meat.
2. To make dipping sauce: Mix up and bring to boil. Turn heat low and simmer until it thickens.

Notes:

• If you don't have mirin, for each 1 tablespoon of mirin, replace it with 1 tablespoon of sake or cooking wine and 1/2 teaspoons of sugar.
• To make it even better, you can use maple syrup or honey to replace sugar.
• Store-bought sauces use refined sugar while using honey or brown sugar will make the sauce taste rounder, balanced with a molasses note.

Chocolate Mochi!

Ingredients (yield 8-10 servings):

• 115g glutinous rice or sweet rice flour (about 1 1/2 cup)
• 1 cup water and 1/3 cup 
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder or cornstarch for dusting
• pinch of salt

Directions:

1. Mix sugar, cocoa powder and 1/3 cup of water in a saucepan. Heat up to dissolve sugar. 
2. Mix sweet rice flour with 1 cup of water until smooth. Cover and microwave 1 1/2 minute on high. Remove from oven and mix until. Cover and microwave another 1 minute on high. 
3. Remove cooked rice flour dough from oven. It should be cooked and translucent. If not, return to oven and cook another 30 seconds.
4. Add cocoa syrup mixture to cooked dough while it's still hot. Mix until they mix evenly and smooth. 
5. Spread out the dough into a greased pan. Let it cool and it will firm up. Dust top with cocoa powder and transfer to a cutting board. cut into 8 to 10 pieces.
6. Use plastic wrap to help kneading it into a round disc shape. 
7. Dust with more cocoa powder or cornstarch and serve. 

Note: 

• To make this as a wrapper like my other post (Adzuki Bean Paste and Strawberry Mochi), reduce the water to 3/4 cup to make the consistency firmer so it can hold up better around the fillings.
• The fillings can be ice cream, frozen Greek yogurt, diced soft fruits, lotus seed paste, sesame seed paste, chocolate ganache (or so-called chocolate paste), or other nut paste, you name it.
• If you use ice cream or frozen Greek yogurt as fillings, make sure to freeze it for 30 min before serving.

Strawberry and Adzuki Bean Mochi.

Ingredients (yield 12-15 servings):

• ¾ cup shiratamako* (100 g) or Mochiko* (115 g) (sweet rice or glutinous rice flour)
• ¾ cup water (about 180 ml)
• 3 tablespoon sugar (40 g, necessary to keep the starch from hardening)
• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil or coconut oil
• 20g of canned red bean (adzuki bean) paste or homemade red bean paste
• two strawberries, diced to bite size
• some corn starch for powdering, about 1/3 to 1/2 cup

Directions:

1. Combine glutinous rice flour with water, sugar, oil, and mix well. Cover the bowl and microwave on high (1200W) for 1 minute. Remove from oven and stir well. Repeat and cover to microwave on high for another minute. Take out and stir again. Cover and microwave lastly for about 30 second. The flour should be cooked and the mixture should turn translucent.
2. Dust the working surface well with corn starch and roll out the rice dough. Cut into 3 to 4 pieces. Roll each piece into small ball. Press to flatten it into disk-shape.
3. To make it easier, you can put a plastic wrap on a plate. Then place the flat skin on the wrap.
4. Put some red bean paste and 2-3 pieces of strawberry dices in the center of the mochi skin. Wrap up with the plastic wrap film.  
   

Note: 

1. Add 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder and one more tablespoon of sugar into the mochiko (sweet rice flour) to make a chocolate flavor skin.

2. You can steam the rice flour mixture for 15 min on cheese clothes. Stir halfway through (about 7-8 min after steaming).

3. You can skip the strawberries if it's out of season.

4. You can put frozen Greek yogurt or ice cream as filling. Freeze 30 min to firm up after wrapping and before serving.

Tofu Tips and Types.

Tofu types are usually categorized by texture, which depends on how much liquid are left in it after being pressed.

Silken (soft,medium or firm) – 

Made without pressing out the liquid. It is very moist and has the smoothest, custard-like texture and is best served out of container without cooking. However, you can use it in dishes like hot pot, soup or you can deep fry it to contrast the uniquely silky texture with crunchiness from other parts of the dish. You can also use it to blend up a smoothie so it helps to thicken up the drink, rather than using soy milk.

Soft Block Tofu –
A bit firmer than silken tofu but softer than Firm tofu. Can be used in soup, stew or even stir fry dish. It holds up better in stew dish as Silken tofu is too soft for that.
Medium – Good for stew, stir fry. It contain less liquid than soft tofu.
Firm – Good for stew, stir fry, or braising dishes. It is pressed to contain even less liquid.

Extra firm – 

The firmest you can get in the grocery market.

Egg tofu – 

Made from egg and soy milk. Check out my recipe for Egg Tofu Recipe.

Tofu By-Products:

Tofu Skin (Yuba in Japanese) – 

During the boiling of soy milk in an open shallow pan, a film or skin forms on the liquid surface. The films are collected and dried into yellowish sheets known as tofu skin. It has many applications in Asian cuisine.

Abura-age

Aburaage (油揚げ ) – 

Japanese food product by cutting tofu into thin slices and deep fry first at 110–120 °C, and then again at 180–200 °C. Aburaage is often used to wrapinari-sushi (稲荷寿司), and is added to miso soup or udon noodle dishes. There is a thicker variety known as atsu-age (厚揚げ) or nama-age (生揚げ) and both can be found in many Asian grocery store.

Atsu-age

Bean Curd – 

Plain or five spice bean curd.

Tofu Tips:

To make mashed tofu – Boil Tofu in salted water for 1 min. Strain and press through a fine-mesh strainer with a spoon. You can get rid of extra liquid by putting the tofu in cheese clothes and press out the excessive liquid with both hands.

Check out my Tofu Recipes.

Ikura (Salmon Roe) Sushi

Ingredients:

• 50g Ikura (Salmon roe or salmon caviar)
• one bowl of steamed sushi rice
• 1 sheet nori (dried seaweed), cut into 1 1/2 inch strips

Directions:

1. Toast the dried seaweed slightly just to make it aromatic but not burnt.
2. Wrap it around the rice and top with Ikura.

Note: You can use boiled spinach,  boiled Japanese garlic chives or fresh shiso leaves as the wrapper, instead of nori.

Scallop and Uni (Sea Urchin)

Ingredients:

• one sushi grade scallop raw
• 2 slices of sea urchin
• 10g daikon shreds
• slices of lemon for soaking and garnish
• some shredded seaweed (nori) for garnish
• some cucumber for garnish

Directions:

1. Remove scallop from shells if needed. Soak in ice water with 5-6 lemon slices for 3 min.
2. Fish out the scallop and wipe dry. 
3. If the sea urchin is from the shell, also soak in ice water with lemon slices as step 1 and remove after 3 min, pat dry.
4. Plate with garnishing items. Serve with low-sodium soy sauce.

Note:

1. For delicate seafood, don't use soy sauce that is too heavy in saltiness or it will overpower the natural flavor from the ingredients. The seafood can be taken with the shiso leaves as a contrast in texture and taste.
2. The same method applies to any combination of sashimi fish. If you purchase the whole fish and cut off the sashimi fillet yourself and slice it thinly, make sure to soak the slices in ice water for 30 min. If you do not consume the sashimi immediately, add ice cubes to the sashimi and keep it refrigerated. However, it should not be left overnight for the best flavor and freshness.

Abalone

Ingredients:

• one abalone in shell or use canned abalone
• daikon shreds
• 1-2 shiso leaves
• 1-2g wakame seaweed
• 1-2 slices of Japanese cucumber

Directions:

1. If the abalone is raw from the shell, wash thoroughly with salt.
2. Cut the abalone into thin slices and cover with cheesecloth. Pour hot water to rinse and immediately soak in ice water to shock. 
3. Fish out the abalone and place on plate.
4. Garnish with daikon shreds, shiso leaves, wakame seaweed and cucumber slices. Serve with low-sodium soy sauce. 

Note: Wash the raw abalone with salt makes the texture more crisp rather than chewy. Rinsing with hot water and shocking in ice water immediately does the same trick.

Raw Oyster

Ingredients:

• One raw oyster in shell, alive
• 1/8 lemon wedge
• 30g daikon cut into thin shreds
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 5-6 lemon slices
• Japanese shiso leave and 1/8 tsp caviar (optional)

Directions:

1. Open up oyster and wash off the sands. Soak in ice water with 5-6 slices of lemon for 10 min. 
2. Fish out the oyster and place on the shell for presentation. Place the shell on top of the daikon shreds and some greens.
3. Garnish with lemon edge and serve. Squeeze the lemon wedge on oyster before eating it.
4. Can top with 1/8 tsp caviar and use shiso leave as garniture.

Note: Fresh oyster should be plump without too much water in the shell when you open it. 

Egg Tofu

Ingredients: 

1 large egg
1 egg yolk
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsweetened soy milk
pinch of salt

Directions:

1. Whisk up everything until well blended. Strain mixture to get rid of lumps.
2. Pour the egg mixture into a small bowl. Steam for 10-15 min until tooth pick test is clean.  Cool for 10 min.

Note:

1. An egg yolk is basically a bag of concentrated food for the development of a chicken embryo if the egg is fertilized. It doesn’t float around freely inside the clear egg white, but is anchored to the shell by two little twisted ropes called chalazae (pronounced cuh-LAY-zee), and these are the white lumpy things that affect the texture when you make steamed egg custard. One chalaza connects the yolk at the more pointed end of the egg and the other at the rounder end. This tethering ensures that the yolk is protected against hitting the inner walls of the egg if the egg is moved around.
2. To make sure the custard comes out smooth, steam 2 min on high heat and then slightly lift the lid to leave a small crack for steam to release. Continue to steam for 10 min.

Enjoy!