Language lessons and lunch!

Ohayou goza masu!!

That means Good Morning!  I hope you all had a great weekend!  We are going swimming (it's going to be in the 80's today!!) but first I've got some more work to do on Japan!!  Let's learn some common words and phrases and then I have a great recipe for Teriyaki Chicken from scratch!! 

Yes- hai    No - iie     Thank You- Arigato    Goodbye - Sayonara

Happy Birthday - Tanjyoubi omedetou gozaimasu 

Enjoy (your meal)- wo tanoshinde kudasai  

I Love You- Daisuki Desi

 

1 - ichi      2- ni       3- san      4- yon     5- go    6- roku

7- nana (or shichi)  8- nachi     9- kyuu    10- jyuu

 

Yellow- ki iro    blue- ao      red- aka      white- shiro

black- kuro    grey- hai iro     purple- murasaki      green- midori

 

 

Now your treat for being so good....

 

Teriyaki Sauce (from scratch!)

For the recipe you will need:
(The ingredients used are pictured in the next recipe)

• 4 T honey (we were out of honey so I used Golden Syrup)
• 4 T Mirin (a sweet rice cooking wine you can fine in Asian aisle)
• 4 T Sake (You'd probably find this in the alcohol section)
• 4 T Soy sauce

That's it!  Combine them all together and use as is if you like a dipping sauce or a marinade.  Or use it in this recipe I got from an interesting website called No recipes.  You should check it out- it had a lot of good recipes despite the name :)  Traditionally, Teriyaki is a grilled dish cooked on a hibachi (small charcoal grill) but this technique is cooked in a skillet. 

 It was delicious and it cooked the alcohol out of the Teriyaki sauce if you are concerned about that!!

 

Chicken Teriyaki

For the recipe you will need:

• Homemade teriyaki sauce (see recipe above)
• 3-4 T vegetable oil
• Boneless chicken thighs or breasts
• 3 T grated fresh ginger
• 1/2 t salt
• 2 T Sake for cooking

1.  Combine the chicken, ginger and salt and let them sit for at least 30 mins.  Pat the chicken dry.

2.  Heat oil in a heavy skillet set on medium heat.  Put chicken in hot oil skin side down and fry until golden on one side.

3.  Turn over the chicken and add the Sake (or you could use water, chicken broth, orange juice)  Cover pan and let chicken steam until it is almost cooked through.

4.  When the chicken is cooked most of the way drain any liquids that are in the pan. Turn your heat to high and add teriyaki sauce.

5.  Let the teriyaki sauce boil and thicken and turn the chicken often so that it is all coated.  The sauce will thicken into a beautiful glaze and the chicken will be a wonderful mahogany color!!  Serve with rice and the any sauce left in the pan!!

I love this recipe!  It always makes me feel good when I know what's in my food and this was so simple!!  Yeah, it was initially a little expensive because we don't normally keep Sake and Mirin on hand, but I found a small bottle of each at the Japanese market.  The sauce was RAVED about by my family and I've already had requests to make it again!!  I can only imagine that it could be doctored up in many ways- maybe some pineapple or orange juice?  Sesame seeds?  

For dessert we had ice cream mochi.  Mochi is a sweet rice flour treat.  They are sticky and chewy and I really like them.  Ice cream mochi is that sticky, chewy stuff with ice cream in the middle!!   How can you go wrong? Ok, I'm getting hungry I need to stop!

 

Have a wonderful weekend people!!  I'm going swimming :)