Thursday 2 October 2008

A taste of Japan

Two months ago, I went out with colleagues to a Japanese restaurant deemed to serve the best Japanese cuisine in Cambridge[according to some of my colleagues]. I have high expectation of this place. It's near the famed Cam river. As I entered the restaurant, the interior decor not even close to the contemporary setting I'm expecting[disapointment], to me it look more like any fast food chain. Secondly the menu, the minimum price of a main meal is about 9quid[that's equivalent to SGD27 or RM54] . I'm quite hungry actually, so I requested for chicken teriyaki bento set[teriyaki chicken, rice, cabbage salad, miso soup,radish pickles]. About 20mins wait, finally my bento set arrived. I hope it's worth the wait. To my disapointment again, the portion was a little mean, not that I'm a big eater, taste wise- needless to say another disapointment. Honestly, Sakae Sushi back in Singapore could beat it with a wide margin. Just having a bento set+a drink comes to about 12quid, however I have to forked out 22quid at the end of the day [being charitable here]. I decided , it's almost close to impossible to find ''value for money'' Japanese meal here in Cambridge. I decided to make my own Japanese meal in the future.
Tonite I make myself Teriyaki Chicken and it taste much much better than the one I had at that ''best Japanese restaurant in Cambridge''. What an achievement and on top of that, at a fraction of cost less than 2quid for the ingredients.



Teriyaki Chicken

Ingredients

  • 4 chicken thigh(remove bone)
  • 50ml of Japanese mirin(rice wine)
  • 30gm miso paste
  • 3 tbsp sugar
  • A slice of ginger minced
  • 30ml sake(optional)
  • 1 tsp vegetable oil
  • sesame seed for decorating

1. Mix wine, miso paste, ginger and sugar in a plastic container. Stir to dissolve the sugar.
2. Add in chicken thigh and leave to marinate for at least 6 hours. I left it overnight again.
3. Heat a pan, on medium heat, pour in the oil, wait about 2mins.
4. Put in the chicken, skin side onto the pan and let it cook until brown. Then turn over to the meat side and let it cook for a minute, pour in the marinating leftover from the container, turn down the heat, close the lid and let it simmer for 5minutes until sauce thicken. You can remove chicken and sliced into pieces, garnish it with the thicken sauce.
5.Serve with rice.

Hope you'll enjoy making this simple and yet lovely dish.

8 comments:

Perry R. Lim said...

i'm going to improvise from your recipe. Will cook terriyaki ala fen tomorrow or maybe tonight. Since I have a bottle of terriyaki marinade, I'll just use that, and then cook with some chinese rice wine, instead of sake. Will see how it turns out. :)

The Melbourne Girl in America said...

eh, that's cheating..using the mix. Hey, I'm gonna try this recipe for dinner tomorrow night.

Christine Toh said...

Ann, let me know how it turn out. :-)

The Melbourne Girl in America said...

Just tried the recipe. Quite good but it kinda lacks something...any idea??

Christine Toh said...

Ann, what is lacking? I guess must be my presence :-). If you want it more saltish rather than sweetish you can add a tbsp of Kikkoman light soya sauce.

Unknown said...

Ann, you didn't really follow through the recipe, including using the plastic bowl to mix it in, did you? Ha!ha!ha! I think the vital ingredient that is lacking is soy sauce! Which Jap dish does not have soy sauce in it???? PErry was lucky he used the ever-reliable ready-made sauce.

Christine, I think you need an editor to run through your recipes b'fore you post them. I'm happy to offer my service for a mere 50quid/hr plus 10% discount since we're relatives. :-)

The Melbourne Girl in America said...

maybe it was the soy sauce. will try to add some of that in the future.

Christine Toh said...

Hey Jin, welcome to my cooking blog.
As for the editing services I would have accepted if it's FOC ( on the term that we're related, just kidding). I would really love to receive some of your nice recipes :-) esp cup cakes with frosting. Am eyeing Fen's steam moist chocolate cake.

Ann, I will make you the Teriyaki in Dec.