Hibatchi Style Teriyaki Sauce

My family and I are total hibatchi/sushi nutjobs.  We could eat there everyday barring the $15.00 lunch price tag per person.  What's a starving, hungry family to do?  Come up with a your own teriyaki sauce to serve over rice and chicken, of course!

Seriously though, this fabulous sauce rivals anything that a restaurant serves and is way cheaper to make that buying a bottle version.  It uses stuff I usually have on hand too, which is handy since I make this about once a week and it's zippy fast to make.  And, using a low sodium soy sauce, I'm controlling the amount of salt and no MSG.  Yay!

Of note:  I use pre-grated ginger and garlic in a squeeze tube.  You can find it in your local produce aisle usually.  They have cilantro, garlic paste...all kinds of stuff in a handy dispensing tube but you can always feel free to grate your own ginger if you have a piece laying around.  Or you can use dried, ground ginger/garlic but I think fresh has more zing and pow to the flavor punch.


Hibatchi Style Teriyaki Sauce
adapted from Witchy, a friend

¼ cup low sodium soy sauce
1 cup water (or chicken/beef broth)
½ teaspoon ground ginger (or 1 Tablespoon fresh from a tube or grated)
¼ teaspoon garlic powder (or 1/2 Tablespoon fresh from a tube or minced)
5 Tablespoons packed brown sugar
2 Tablespoons honey
1 Tablespoon Wondra flour
pepper/salt to taste

In a saucepan, add soy sauce, water, ginger, garlic, brown sugar and honey.  Whisk together over medium heat till warmed through.  Salt/pepper to taste and adjust garlic/ginger to taste if desired. 

To thicken, sprinkle 1 Tablespoon of Wondra over top and whisk thoroughly.  Or alternatively, make a slurry of 2 Tablespoons of cornstarch and 1/4 cup of cold water and add to sauce pan, stirring till desired consistency.

Serve warm as dipping sauce or poured over meat/rice.  Delicous!

Easy Wonton Soup

Hubs is quite the Japanese food fanatic.  In New York, we had the pleasure of eating at Yobo, which served the best dim sum I have ever had in my life and had some of the most beautifully prepared sushi I have ever seen.  Everything about Yobo made you want to just linger.  It had dark wood, was dimly lit, had a fountain and pond in the middle of the restaurant and everything was geared to make you feel like you welcome to stay just a little longer...they served a fabulous spicy, hot tea at the end of the meal as if just beckoning you to kick back and relax a little longer and sip your mug of hot, steaming tea.  Nothing was rushed or hurried - it was just perfection.  Our last meal from New York was at Yobo, in fact.  I miss the Hudson Valley more and more every day.  Not their 8 feet of snow at the moment, but you know what I'm getting at.  :)

Spicy Sweet Asian Beef

Ever come across a recipe that you think will be just "ho hum" but you want to try something different so you make you and then...BOOM!  Sparklers go off, a marching band trumps through your kitchen and the heavens open up and a beam of glorious light sprays across your stove?  Yeah...I had that last night when I made this recipe from Jennalaughs.com  

I mean, just LOOK at that picture for crying out loud!  The rich, spicy, sweet beefy sauce just beckons to me to remake it tomorrow.  I could, in all seriousness, eat this once a day & not ever get bored.

Braised Pork over Rice

Keeping in line with my cruddy week, I decided to start off the weekend right by making my most favorite meal in the entire world.  As in, if I was on my death bed, I would request someone make this for me.  Its seriously THAT good.  Warm, spicy, sweet - its everything good in one pan that you could ever want.  Husbands swoon and kids lick their chops when the sauce hits the pan and the aroma fills the house beckoning everyone to the table.  Its just majestic.  Say 'amen' now because you'll swear its heaven sent.  Heck, they might even serve this in heaven while playing "Kings and Queens" from 30 Seconds to Mars while we eat Hang It on the Wall cake for dessert.  Well, maybe that's just my version of the afterlife. There had better be prosecco in there somewhere too...that's another post entirely though.  HA!

Do yourself a favor if you make this.  Have everything chopped, diced and measured beforehand.  It moves fairly quickly and its just convenient to have everything prepared ahead of time.  Also, feel free to use whatever rice you like.  I've done brown rice, jasmine, white...just whatever you want.  For my laziness, boil in a bag is great.  Do NOT over stir the meat while frying. You want it to get a nice crispy coating to it. Frying in two batches helps avoid steaming the meat and making the coating gummy. Two batch frying allows it to crisp instead. Well worth the extra five minutes.

Click to enlarge.

Braised Pork over Rice

• 2 pounds Boneless Pork In 1 Inch, Bite Sized Cubes
• 1 Tablespoon Each Corn Starch And Flour, For Dredging
• 3 Tablespoons Vegetable Oil
• ⅔ cups Beef Broth
• ⅔ cups Soy Sauce
• 4 Tablespoons Cooking Sherry
• ¼ cups Finely Diced White Onion
• 2 teaspoons Minced Garlic
• 2 teaspoons Ground Ginger
• 2 Tablespoons Sugar
• 1 dash Fresh Ground Pepper, to taste
• 2 bags Boil In A Bag Rice, Prepared To Directions

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Dredge meat in flour/cornstarch mix. Add half of meat to hot skillet and brown quickly. Remove and set aside. Brown remaining meat and set aside. Pour off excess oil from the pan.

In a small bowl, combine the stock, soy and sherry. Add onion, garlic, sugar, ginger, salt and pepper, stirring well to combine.  Add reserved meat back to the skillet with the sauce and simmer covered for 15 minutes or until meat is tender. Serve over rice.  Serves 6 amply well.