Teriyaki
Teriyaki
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Kitchen Japanese cuisine
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Basis Meat / fish
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Dish type Main course
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For who Busy people on the go
What is teriyaki?
Teriyaki (pronounced ‘ter-rie-jak-kie’ with equal emphasis on each syllable) is a Japanese cooking technique where the main ingredient, usually meat or fish, is marinated in a special sauce and then grilled or roasted. During grilling or roasting, the ingredient is often coated several times with the sauce.
The sauce (tare) for teriyaki traditionally consists of soy sauce, mirin and/or sake (two kinds of rice wine) and sugar. The mirin, a syrupy wine, gives the dish a nice shine when cooked. This sheen gives the dish its name; teri means ‘shine’ and yaki means ‘grill’ or ‘roast’.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, a dish was first described in which eel was roasted over charcoal with a glaze of soy sauce, sake and mirin. This first form of the dish existed long before the term teriyaki was coined. Teriyaki is now so well known outside Japan that even in supermarkets there are bottles, packets and sachets so you can make the sauce.
East versus west
The Japanese prefer to use the tare in combination with fish and seafood, like fatty tuna or eel. The sweet and salty taste of the tare goes well with the crispy fat from the fish. In the west we prefer to marinate chicken, beef or salmon in the sauce. Although originally intended as a marinade and glaze, the tare is also used in western cooking as a stir-fry or dipping sauce.
Did you know?
It is believed that teriyaki came to the west through Japanese immigrants in Hawaii. Hawaiians have their own version of teriyaki, with pineapple and spring onion, which is now an important part of Hawaiian cuisine.
How to make teriyaki?
The teriyaki sauce or tare should be prepared first. According to the celebrated chef Shizuo Tsuji, the sauce is made as follows – heat 7 tablespoons dark shoyu (soy sauce), 7 tablespoons mirin (rice wine), 7 tablespoons sake and 1 tablespoon sugar until the sugar is dissolved. It’s as simple as that!
The chosen main ingredient – steak, salmon, chicken, eel or perhaps even artichoke hearts – is marinated in the tare and then seared in a hot pan or on the hot grill. While the meat or fish is cooking, it can be coated with extra tare once or several times. If necessary, the fried dish can be covered with extra, warmed sauce.
How to eat
Eat the teriyaki dish with boiled rice.
Also try
Another Japanese dish prepared on the grill plate is teppanyaki.
At
Eat crunchy, salted edamame with teriyaki and you’ll have one of your daily portions of vegetables.
