Teriyaki Experiment

Okay This is the Recipe I am going to try first cause it resembles the recipe (which i dont completely know) I saw used while working at a gourmet japanese restaurant. Wish I would have been a cook instead of a dishwaser but I paid a little bit of attention. I will clean this up later and post the results asap.

There are a bunch of methods to prepare this glaze. The way I like to do it is combine soy sauce, mirin, sake, sugar, garlic and ginger in a saucepan and simmer down until half the liquid evaporates. The result is a fragrant, intensely flavored, syrupy liquid, with an undercurrent of garlic and ginger. You can also prepare this sauce without the garlic or ginger, or just use either/or. Here's the recipe:

(Makes about 1/2 a cup)

1/2 cup shoyu (Japanese dark soy sauce)
1/4 cup mirin
1/4 cup sake
3 tablespoons unrefined cane sugar (which imparts a nice molassesy flavor)
1 or 2 cloves of garlic, crushed (optional)
1/2 inch piece of ginger sliced thickly (optional)

Combine all the ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for about 20 minutes until the liquid reduces by about half (make sure the surface is bubbling lightly). It's okay if the sauce gets foamy towards the end; just remove from heat for a moment to check how much liquid has cooked off. Once the teriyaki sauce is ready, remove and discard the garlic and/or ginger, if you're using, so it doesn't overpower. Allow the sauce to come to room temperature, and use. Store leftover sauce in a tightly sealed container in the fridge.