Haikugirl's Japan

This month has been busy and I was feeling like it was too much effort to try to find a Japanese recipe to cook. Despite having cooked something Japanese at least once a month all this year so far, I still often feel like ‘cooking Japanese food is hard’. So, in a bid to prove that it’s not, here’s a super simple recipe this month for salmon teriyaki don. I reckon just about anyone can cook this meal, and it also shows you that there’s no need for ready-made teriyaki sauces because it’s really easy to make your own. I got this recipe from the Japan Centre, which is a great place to buy your Japanese ingredients in the UK.

Salmon Teriyaki Don

Ingredients (serves 2)

• 2 pieces of salmon
• Japanese sticky rice (enough for two people)
• 100ml of soy sauce (you can use ordinary soy sauce, but as you need quite a bit it’s more economical to buy a big bottle of cooking soy sauce)
• 100ml of mirin (a kind of rice wine available in most supermarkets these days)
• 1 small piece of fresh ginger
• 1 tablespoon of sugar
• Cooking oil or low calorie cooking spray
• Vegetables of your choice to serve – I chose green beans

Method

First, put your rice on to cook. A ‘don’ is a rice bowl, so you need to prepare enough rice to make a good bed in your bowl. The salmon will sit on top of the rice.

Prepare your vegetables and cook them whilst making the teriyaki sauce.

Once the rice is cooking, start making the teriyaki sauce. Mix the soy sauce and mirin together in a saucepan.

Add a tablespoon of sugar and some grated ginger, and slowly bring to the boil.

Simmer the sauce gently on a low heat until it becomes thick and syrupy. I found that this recipe made a bit too much sauce, so you might want to try using smaller quantities.

In a separate pan, start cooking the salmon until it is nearly cooked. I used a low calorie cooking spray, but you could also use a little oil.

When the salmon is nearly cooked, add the teriyaki to the pan and marinate the salmon in it while it finishes cooking.

Serve the rice in bowls, and add the vegetables.

Place the teriyaki salmon on top of the rice and serve.

And there you have it – super easy, super delicious Japanese food. If you already have the basic store cupboard ingredients in, it’s also a relatively cheap meal to prepare. If you make too much, this is a meal which works brilliantly as a lunchbox for the next day, so even if you’re eating by yourself it’s worth making two portions.

As always, I’ll be back sometime next month with another recipe. If you have any suggestions, or perhaps you would like me to try one of your recipes from a book or website, please leave a comment below or get in touch!