Dining with the Chef!

- Mm. Smells good.
- Yeah.

- Rika, are you making teriyaki today?
- Yes.

Ooh, it smells wonderful, isn't it?

- Oh, I love the smell.
- Yes.

You can smell teriyaki walking down the street sometimes.

It's so popular here in Japan. It's wonderful.

You know, around the world, in supermarkets, you can find store-bought teriyaki sauce made in a factory somewhere.

- That's pretty good, too, right?
- Yes, it's very good.

But I think it evolveed into a little bit different thing.

Right. It's not the same flavor as original Japanese teriyaki.

And most of us here in Japan, we don't bother buying it.

We just make it so quick and easy, right?

If you have Soy sauce, sugar, "mirin" and sake, those four ingredients, it's so easy to make.

- But sake is kind of easy, but "mirin" is a little bit harder to find.
- Yes.

So you're going to teach us a workaround?

Yes. I'm going to make a teriyaki sauce with water, sugar and soy sauce only.

- Great.
- Yes.

Tokyo, an Asian city with the largest metropolitan population in the world,

the boundaries between old Japan and futuristic Japan are blurred in this metropolis.

The food here is a fusion of cuisine, not just from around Asia, but around the globe.

Our program host is culinary expert Rika Yukimasa.

Our co-host is Patrick Harlan, known in Japan as Pakkun.

Rika's Tokyo Cuisine.

Today we learn how to make a lustrous teriyaki dish at home.

- You can give it a try.
- Great.

We have variety things to taste with.

Like some? And what's this?

This is a store-bought teriyaki sauce made in America.

And this is kind of like regulars, teriyaki sauce.

- Right. Which you just created.
- Yes.

For us right now. Let's give it a shot.

You just can't go wrong. Wonderful.

Just traditional standard teriyaki flavors, which tastes like Japanese food basically.

Many bottled teriyaki sauces contain fruit and vegetable extracts and taste more like a barbecue sauce.

This store-bought teriyaki sauce, you can tell it's quite a bit thicker.

It's also quite nice, but it has more like fruit flavors in it.

So it tastes more like a like a dipping sauce or perhaps a sauce for stir fry.

Then it does what I think of the standard, you know, basic teriyaki sauce.

- It's very good, but it's different.
- Yes.

You only need a few basic seasonings to make teriyaki.

So make sure to use the right kind of soy sauce.

So if you go to the grocery store overseas, you get to see the bottles of "shoyu."

We have Japanese version and then Korean, Chinese and some Thai fish sauce.

Everything is in the same shelf.

- If you want to cook Japanese food, it's very different.
- Right.

So to make the traditional Japanese teriyaki sauce, you should start with traditional Japanese soy sauce.

- Okay.
- Yes. That's the first step.

And within Japanese soy sauce, you have three different kinds.

And "Usukuchi" is, the color is really fair.

And then it's a little bit salty and it does really well with making soups or...

if you want to inherent colors of the ingredients, you should use this "Usukuchi" soy sauce.

- So, it doesn't turn everything brown.
- Exactly.

- Alright.
- Yes.

And for regular one, we call it "Koikuchi."

- And this is the one you can find in the grocery stores overseas.
- Sold in the big bottles.

- Yes.
- Right.

And the third one, if you come to Japan and if you find out the soy sauce you use for sashimi, it's different.

That's called "Tamari shoyu."

So we concentrate the water part.

- So you have a kind of thicker flavor.
- Right.

It's a little bit more, it sticks to the fish a little bit better.

TERI means "luster or glaze," and YAKI means "to fry."

So Teriyaki is a Japanese cooking technique in which meat or seafood is cooked and glazed with a sweet and savory sauce.

You get a double boost of umami from the ingredients and the sauce.

Today, a classic dish, Fish Teriyaki.

What do we do?

- Well, just follow my instructions.
- Okay.

- I broke down this step into four.
- Okay.

It's going to be very easy to make.

Alright. Four easy steps for cooking the perfect teriyaki.

- We need the frying pan?
- Well, first, I think it's very important for cooking.

- You have to streamline everything you need at once.
- Streamline. Okay.

Teriyaki is a kind of dish that really cooks quickly.

- Cooks quickly. huh?
- Yeah.

Once you start, you can't stop. So you have to just put everything, frying pan, spatula...

- You need this spoon for the sauce.
- Mm-hmm.

And yeah, and the ingredients.

Okay, so a frying pan is fine.

We call it a sauce, but you don't need to make it in the sauce pan like you would with other kind of sauces.

You make it while you're frying the fish or the meat.

Okay. And how do we prepare the ingredients?

- First, I know that we are good use fish or some sort of seafood today, right?
- Yes.

We're going to use this yellowtail.

And if you like salmon, you can also have salmon and scallops.

- Oh, all of these are so good.
- Yes.

Just use whatever you have available in your local supermarket or fishmonger.

Great. And we have the seasonings here. If you have sake and "mirin," please use them.

Otherwise we can make it with soy sauce, sugar and water.

And it's 2, to 2 to 3.

- Yes.
- Okay.

- Usually, you know, as I said, "mirin," sake, "shoyu," sugar, all same amount. 1, 1, 1, 1.
- Right.

- Or like for two people. 2, 2, 2, 2.
- Sure.

- But this time, 2, 2, 3.
- Okay.

- 2, 2, 3.
- Yes.

Got it. Okay.

If you overcook seafood or fish, it'll become dry and tasteless.

So be sure to measure the seasonings before you start cooking!

So what do we do first?

- Okay, first, let's prep the fish.
- Okay.

This is a preparation, actually, you don't need to do, if you don't mind, a little bit fishy smell.

Right. Or if you're in hurry.

But if you think some of the fish taste really good in Japan, this is something that we do.

- This is the difference between what you get at home and what you get over here.
- Yes.

- But now you know how to make it at home.
- Yeah.

And this is actually not to season the fish.

- I am sprinkling a little bit of salt.
- Mm-hmm.

This is not to season, the salt. This is to get rid of fishy smell.

Sprinkling salt on both sides of the fish.

This drowns out excess moisture, and any fishy smell through osmosis.

If you don't want to use salt at all, you can use sugar, which also promotes osmosis.

And then what I always do is before I start doing anything, I just place these...

Just wrap around the paper towel and put it in the fridge before I change my clothes or anything.

I just come back from the grocery store, just do this, preparation.

And put it in the fridge.

So what we're going to do? Wait 3 hours?

Well, minimum 30 minutes.

- But if you wait for 3 hours, then it's even better.
- Okay,

Sprinkling salt to remove the excess moisture and fishy smell,

is an effective technique for all kinds of seafood dishes, including sashimi!

- Oh, I can see the the fish juices seeped into the paper towel.
- Yes.

- So, you know, even 30 minutes, you see this effect.
- Great.

And this is the kind of like a fishy excess water.

So you can get rid of them.

- Great.
- Yes.

Oh, nice.

- Should we rinse this off once?
- Oh no.

- If you want to rinse off the fishy smell, you should do it first before you salt it.
- Okay.

And then pat fry with paper towel.

- Then you sprinkle salt or sugar.
- All right.

If you don't want this also sugar on it, can you wipe it off? Is that okay?

- Yes.
- Okay.

- But you don't want to rinse it with water because basically you just remove the water.
- Yes.

That means putting it back in. All right.

If you're using frozen scallops, thaw them out properly.

It will make a world of difference to the flavor.

Thawing at room temperature is dangerous because of bacterial growth.

It also results in a soggy texture.

Stir salt into a bowl of ice.

Place the frozen scallops in the ice, avoiding overlap or exposure to air.

Set aside at room temperature, for one-and-a-half to three hours.

Once the scallops have thawed, remove and pat dry.

And then for scallops.

- We will make incisions and make some "Kazari Bocho."
- Okay.

"Kazari Bocho" means decorative cutting or decorative knife.

- Criss cross section.
- Right.

Besides adding a decorative touch, it helps the scallops soak up flavor.

Scoring it like this allows the ingredients to seep deeper into the the food.

So, the flavorings get closer to the center of the food, which is awesome.

- You can do this for many things. Fish, meat, vegetables.
- Vegetables and eggplants.

Little simple trick, but it makes your food taste better.

- And looks interesting, too.
- Yes, it does.

Okay.

What do I do?

- So heat the pan on medium.
- Medium heat. All right.

- And wait until it gets heated.
- All right. Let's see.

- About like that?
- Yes.

Little smaller like that. All right.

You know, depending on the stovetop you're using, the medium heat is completely different.

Sometimes it's very hot, sometimes very low.

So you have to kind of make sure which one is yours.

- And also depends on your pans, adjust your own preference.
- Yes.

All right. And once it's warm, what I do?

Once it's heated, we pour a little bit of olive oil or just regular vegetable oil.

- This seems like quite a bit. Just a little?
- Just a little. Yes.

- Good enough?
- Yes.

All right.

- And swirl.
- Swirl around.

And then what's important is you kind of like coat with the oil, the both sides. One minute each.

Oh, okay. So I'm going to cook one side for a minute and then flip it over and cook.

- Yes.
- Okay.

I guess tongs would work for this, right?

- With tongs. Or we can use the spatula, too.
- The spatula. All right.

- Because you don't want to break apart the fish.
- Okay.

- Are we going to do both pieces of fish at the same time?
- Yes.

All right.

- Great.
- And you can also do that.

- Oh, scallops at the same time.
- Yes.

All right.

Sear both sides over medium heat.

So I need to move it around little or...

- No, wait for like less than one minute.
- Okay.

- Tell me when I'm ready.
- Yes.

- How are we looking? Pretty good?
- Yes.

You know, you can analyze how it's going by looking at the white surface.

- You see edges.
- Edges.

- It's definitely cooking.
- Yes.

- Definitely cooking.
- Okay.

- So let's turn it over.
- Okay.

- I think I started with "Buri," the yellow tail, so I'll flip the yellow tail first.
- Perfect.

- Great.
- Salmon.

The "Hotate," the scallops are a little bit later.

- No. no. It's okay.
- Okay.

Alright.

And once both sides are browned, then we add the sauce.

- In western way, like when you think of sauce, you thicken and you use the saucepan.
- Right.

But teriyaki sauce is really, really quick and easy one you can make.

So we're ready to go.

Okay. And now we add this water instead of...

Add water first.

Soy sauce.

And sugar.

- And what you do is you use this spoon to scoop over.
- All right.

Like this.

- All right. That's what the spoon for.
- Yes.

- We wash off that sugar that you got on there first?
- Yeah.

Nice.

So a lot of people must be spending like $24 per teriyaki fish when you go to the restaurant even more.

Right.

You can just make it so easily.

- That's true.
- Yeah.

- And the ingredients are super cheap.
- Yes.

It's just in this case, soy sauce, sugar and water.

- Yeah, well, let's turn over this.
- Okay, so we're going to flip.

- We made a incision.
- Oh, that's true.

Only on one side.

And you have to see, like the salmon is thicker and then yellowtail is thinner.

And scallop, it doesn't take for a long time to cook.

Are we ready to go...

- With the scallops? Maybe yes.
- Okay.

- Scallops you can eat pretty much close to raw.
- Yes.

I'm just going to take them out.

- All right.
- Good.

Okay. And what about the other fish? When do I know when they're done?

If you have this kind of thing, thin skewer, like this is a metal one.

You can have the bamboo skewer.

You place like 3 seconds.

One, two, three, and then check with your lips.

- With my lips?
- Yes.

- Is it hot?
- Yeah, it's pretty warm.

Let's try with the other one.

One, two, three.

I don't know.

Okay, well...

But I think it's probably done.

Use a skewer to test the fish.

If the tip is warm, that means it's cooked through.

Remove immediately to prevent overcooking, but handle with care so as not to break the fish apart.

- All right.
- Great, great.

- Beautiful.
- Yes. Good.

All took just a couple of minutes.

It's super easy because we've done the preparation beforehand.

The prep seems like a hassle, but when you're cooking, you're so psyched that you did it.

So we have our fish beautifully teriyaki.

What do we do next?

- Let's plate it.
- Great.

Okay, so here we have different shapes and sizes of Japanese plates.

So interesting. You know, when you go to West, you have this round shape, like 26 centimeters...

But in Japan, we use really different shapes like this, very nice square one or one with a little shape like this.

And then different material too.

But this time I think I'm going to use this one, this one, and maybe use this one.

That's so much fun with the variety.

- Choosing the plate is half the fun of plating.
- Mm-hmm!

- All right.
- Okay.

The teriyaki, "Teri" means glisten or glow.

And I love how the sauce makes it sort of shine like a pearl or jewel.

"Teri" means glisten and glow, "Yaki" means cook.

- So you cook it in a way that it glistens.
- Yes.

A great way to brighten up the bowl is by adding green vegetables.

You can boil them separately, this preserves their color.

And a little bit of sauce on top.

- If you add contrasting colors, it just makes your eyes feel happy.
- True.

- Good point.
- Yes.

And Western dishes, we often put parsley or something on the side.

The wonderful thing about Japanese "Moritsuke,"

the plating is that it uses edible, delicious and beautiful foods.

True, true.

If you went to a restaurant eat this, the easily be $60-70.

Here at home, five or six.

Yes. Try it.

"Itadakimasu."

Oh, so good!

I love yellowtail.

- Taste good.
- Mmm.

I've never had teriyaki made with just soy sauce and sugar.

- I was making myself with "mirin" and sake, but you can hardly tell the difference.
- Yeah!

- It's wonderful.
- Amazing.

And because you can cook it with the fish, when you prepare the sauce,

the delicious umami flavors from the fish seep into the sauce, making it that much better.

- Right.
- It reinforces it.

- Oh, it's so good.
- Yeah.

Thank you. And then the thing is, depending on the protein you use,

like if you're using chicken or pork, the flavor will differ.

Will be completely different.

Right. Chicken, pork, fish. Try it.

Make your teriyaki sauce.

I mean, make it with the ingredients.

So every time the flavors of the sauce change too. It's amazing.

A little salt and sugar prep, leave it in the fridge whike doing other things.

Just that simple step really makes a difference.

The fish is much less fishy, much more flavorful.

The flesh is much firmer.

Just that one simple prep step makes a world of difference. It's really good.

And the fish is so soft and wonderful because we didn't overcook it, right?

Right. I think overcooking is prohibited.

As I say all the time, it's very important, especially fish and meat.

- You have to cook at the right time.
- Right.

That little skewer trick was easy.

But if you have fresh fish, you don't need to cook it much at all.

- It's really great.
- Yeah.

And if you want to do little arrangement, you can add butter towards the end.

Oh, I love buttered scallops!

- And it's goes with teriyaki as well?
- Yes, teriyaki as well.

So if you want to have that, I think it's a great idea.

If you if you're having a Western style dinner, you can have teriyaki something towards the end,

add some butter or a lot of olive oil in a way.

- Oh, interesting.
- And then the sauce will be even milder.

Wow. Once you have the basic down, you can experiment.

Cooking is basically science. It's chemistry.

So experiment, that's what chemists do. Enjoy it as well.

A simple but delicious teriyaki, made with just soy sauce, sugar, and water.

A great way to start cooking Japanese food at home.

This is so good.

And I really appreciate you teaching us how to make a simple teriyaki sauce.

The reason why I came up with this sauce is because my daughter went to Denmark and she has to cook herself.

And you need to you know, I'm sure when you came to Japan for the first time, you must have missed your own country.

Yeah. It's something that you don't feel when you are living in your country

and when you live outside of your country, then you feel the identity.

And make teriyaki sauce out of these only water and sugar and soy sauce.

- A little home cooking is a great cure for homesick.
- Yeah.

But those of you who aren't homesick for Japan should try this as a culinary expedition.

And if you can get a bowl of rice.

Yes, this sauce...

- Goes great on rice.
- Oh, yeah.

Stir fry some vegetables or your fish or your meat or your pork, whatever.

Put it on a bowl of hot, steaming white rice. Japanese rice, if you can. It's the perfect combination.

That's what my daughter did.

She sent me a photo of a bowl of rice, full of rice with teriyaki sauce.

That's it.

- I miss you, Mom, but I have my teriyaki "domburi."
- Yes.

A lot of people just give up on cooking when they see the recipe and it's like,

you know, 20 different ingredients and 15 different steps,

but you only use basically three ingredients and four steps super easy.

And anyone can start from here and experiment and find their own variations later on.

Just keep it easy. It's just delicious either way.

And then it's so exciting if you can get a hand of being able to, you know,

if you can get hand of cooking techniques, then you don't need to go out of your house to entertain yourself.

Right.

Today I used soy sauce, sugar, and water to make teriyaki sauce.

Ideally, I'd use "mirin" or sake in place of water.

It may be hard to find, but it adds flavor and depth to the sauce.

If you have a chance to visit Japan, a bottle of "mirin" would be a nice souvenir to take back home.

I hope you'll try making teriyaki at home.

There's so much more to Japanese cuisine than sushi and tempura.

And join us again right here on Dining with the Chef.

We'll see you next time. Bye.

What did you think of today's simplified teriyaki recipe?

All you need is soy sauce, sugar, and water.

Now for a recap on how to make a basic fish teriyaki.

The key is in the preparation.

Sprinkle with salt and wrap in a paper towel.

After three hours, the fishy smell will be removed along with the excess moisture.

A decorative cut on the top and scoring the scallops will allow the sauce to seep in.

Sear both sides of the fish for a minute before adding the seasonings.

Be careful as they tend to burn easily.

Spoon the sauce over the seafood to glaze it.

Once the fish is evenly glazed and cooked through, remove from the pan to prevent overcooking.

Then garnish with a green vegetable, cooked separately to preserve the color.

And you have a teriyaki dish that is as pretty as a picture.

Why not treat your family and friends to this simple but authentic teriyaki dish that you have made yourself.