Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Yakitori


Yakitori is an essential Japanese culinary experience. Millions of bamboo chicken skewers are sold every day throughout Japan. A good yakitori shop will offer a fascinating selection of different cuts of chicken on skewers. There might be chicken legs, chicken meatballs, chicken livers, quails' eggs, chicken and leek kebabs to name but a few variations. Popular with beer, yakitori is marinated in teriyaki sauce, grilled over hot direct heat and basted continually during the process. Variations range from salty (shio) to sweetish (amai); however the basting sauce is typically made from soy sauce, sake, mirin (sweet rice wine),and sugar. Next time you're in Tokyo, try walking by a yakitori shop or stall without stopping. The mouth watering aroma of this Japanese specialty will entice you without fail.
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Teriyaki Sauce
½ cup soy sauce
¼ cup mirin (sweet rice wine)
½ cup sake
1 Tbsp. sugar
2-3 slices fresh ginger
Method
Mix the above ingredients in a small saucepan over high heat until boiling point. Reduce heat to med-low and simmer until volume is reduced to 1 cup - about 10-15 minutes. Remove ginger. Prepare chicken skewers and place on oiled grill. Baste chicken with sauce and turn when chicken is lightly browned. Repeat grilling, basting and turning until chicken is cooked - about 2 minutes. Serve immediately with lemon wedges. Teriyaki Sauce is a very versatile sauce which can be used to marinate and baste chicken, salmon, shellfish, and beef.

2 comments:

Two Hands Caricaturist and 1 cut 2 pieces Silhouette Artist said...

Mmmmmmm..nice food blog! I like the food photos.

Maggie said...

Great blog, I love the collection of recipes you are creating here!