Carefree Cooking

Teriyaki Fried Rice

I've always wondered how japanese restaurants make their Teriyaki sauce. The sauce looks brownish in color and is very thick and sweet (if you know the secret, please share with us). But when I buy the prepared ones (that come in a bottle), they don't taste like the ones served in the restaurant. I was told that for authentic japanese teriyaki, there are only a couple ingredients: Mirin (japanese sweet rice wine) and soy sauce. Since I have never been to Japan, I don't know what "authentic" taste like, but it was worth a try to see if it will be as good as the ones served in japanese restaurants.

I searched for some teriyaki recipe on the web and I found one that is simple (and requires ingredients that I already have).

Teriyaki Sauce

1/2 cup Mirin
1/2 cup Dark Soy sauce
3 tbsp Sake wine
1 tbsp sugar

Mix everything in a pan until sugar dissolves completely.

The sauce was not bad. It didn't taste like the ones from the japanese restaurant. So my search continues. In the mean time, I had a lot of leftover teriyaki sauce so I decided to make some fried rice with it. After all, fried rice is one of those dishes where you can dump all your leftovers (including sauces).

To make my fried rice, I sliced some chinese sausages and pan fried them with a little bit of oil. I find that cooking the chinese sausages in oil makes them smell even better and concentrates the taste. I added some rice and the teriyaki sauce. I didn't know how much sauce needs to go in the pan so I added a little at a time. You know you had enough when you don't see any more white rice color. To give it some additional flavours, I added some salt, pepper, and oyster sauce. I also added some store bought cooked peanuts to give it some texture.

I also fried an egg to go with this rice. I didn't know if the two would go well, but it was worth a try. The combination actually tasted good so I was pretty happy with the dish. The rule of thumb that I always follow is that you use the stuff that you like, and the end result would most likely be good. Cooking can't get any easier than that right? Is that Carefree cooking or what?

posted by carefreecooking @ 11:21 PM