Japanese sauces

I have been back in my Wagamama cookbook, making up batches of sauces to keep in the fridge. It's a nice feeling to know that when we use sauces they have been homemade, and the ones I made today are dead easy too.

Yakitori - Made using sake, light soy sauce, mirin and sugar.

Teriyaki - Made using sugar, light soy sauce, sake and dark soy sauce.

My own noodle sauce (enough for 3 portions of noodles)

2tbsp light soy sauce

1tsp runny honey

1/2 tsp dark soy sauce

ginger, to taste (I use chopped, frozen ginger or even ground)

1/2 tsp sesame oil

Teriyaki pork skewers

I immediately put the teriyaki to good use, as a marinade for strips of pork to be made into skewers. My children love teriyaki pork, beef or chicken, I guess it is because it is a reasonably mild yet sticky and sweet flavour. For some reason, they also love eating food off a stick, I think this is true of most children, I must take advantage of this fact more often!

I tend to use the same method to cook whichever meat I happen to have at the time, today it was pork loin. I cut the pork into strips about 1.5cm wide, then left the strips to marinade in the teriyaki sauce for a couple of hours (sometimes more, if it fits into my day to make it earlier). I then threaded the pork onto bamboo skewers and baked them in the oven at 180c for about 20 minutes.

I served these with noodles (served with my noodle sauce and toasted sesame seeds) and steamed edamame beans. There was not a scrap left at the end of dinner. Job done.