Teriyaki Sauce

We love having Japanese food at home. One of my favourite and easiest to prepare is "Teriyaki whatever". Salmon, chicken, beef, even peppers and broccoli goes well with the sweet, soy-based sauce. 

I have been making our teriyaki sauce from Namiko chan's recipe for sometime now and we're loving it. True that bottled teriyaki sauce can be found readily off the shelves, but I generally find them sweeter than what we prefer. No such issue with the homemade version and as encouraged by Namiko on her blog, here's the adaptation adjusted to our preference.

Teriyaki Sauce (makes about 150ml)
(adapted from justonecookbook)
60g     Light soya sauce
60g     Mirin
20g     Sugar

Thickening Agent   
  5g     Cornstarch
40g     Water

1. In a small sauce pot over medium heat, combine light soya sauce, mirin and sugar. Stir to dissolve the sugar and bring the mixture to a boil.

2. Combine the cornstarch and water, and stir it into the sauce pot, making sure that the mixture is well combined.

3. Continue stirring as the sauce thickens to your desired consistency. It will continue to thicken slightly as it cools.

4. Remove from heat and let cool before using or storing in an airtight container. 

Thoughts: With 3-5 ingredients and less than 5mins, this sauce is very easy to prepare. Each time, I'll make 4x the recipe and store it in the fridge so there is always some ready to use. While I haven't had the chance to use it on the grill yet (even though I'm in the country where "barbie" is so popular), the sauce goes on perfectly with roasted chicken, oven-baked salmon or even a simple stir fry of beef and vegetables.

Since the original recipe is created to resemble the "American-style" teriyaki sauce, I've adjusted it very slightly to better suit our Asian palate. To create a more balanced pull between sweet and salty, the sugar has been reduced slightly. The cornstarch mixture has also been thinned out so the resulting sauce is less syrupy. While thickening of the sauce is optional and the Japanese rarely do it, I still want it to have a little viscosity so it coats the food easily and gives it a nice, thin, glaze. However, if I want to use teriyaki sauce as a marinade, I'll make this recipe without thickening or heating it. 

Store bought teriyaki sauces are convenient, but good ones are hard to come by. Some of them can be quite vile, usually weird-tasting, slightly off with a gooey or even gloppy consistency. Homemade stuffs are the best, free of additives and preservatives; you know what goes into them. Best of all, it is healthier and you can change it to the way you and your family prefer. Once you try this, there's no need to buy them again!

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