RECIPE: Maki's Yakitori Stir-Fry

Last night I decided to make up a batch of Yakitori sauce. The recipe comes from a Japanese family friend who shared it with us decades ago. It's very simple to make.

Maki's Yakitori Sauce

1/4 cup Mirin (Japanese cooking wine)
2 cup soy sauce (I use organic Tamari)
2/3 cup sugar
4 cloves garlic, chopped fine
1 ginger root, chopped fine (I used about 1/2 tbs)

Cook all the ingredients in a large saucepan. Cook on low flame 25-30 minutes, uncovered. Check after 20 minutes to see if sauce is thick enough. It has cooked too long if it is too syrupy or candy-like.

(Mine doesn't thicken. Perhaps I need to turn the heat up a little. Or bring to a boil and then simmer.)

Double the recipe for about 1 quart of sauce.

For a BBQ variation, add ketchup and Tobasco sauce. Use on chicken.

For my stir-fry, I add chopped carrots, sliced onions, chopped green pepper, and a store-bought stir-fry mix that included broccolli and snow peas.

After this cooked for a few minutes in hot oil, I added in some sliced button mushrooms.

I cooked until about crisp-tender, and then add day-old leftover brown rice.

Once it was all cooked through to my liking, I added some Yakitori sauce.

Very good! Store the Yakitori sauce in the refrigerator. I don't know how long it keeps, but I expect it should last awhile, given the high concentration of soy sauce and wine.

(I also added some chopped tomatoes, only because I had some to use up. Normally I wouldn't include them in a stir-fry.)

NOTE: A week or two later I made another batch of stir-fry, this time with a few snow peas and broccoli florets, but mostly sliced zucchini, red peppers and onions, and it was awesome! Better than the stir-fry with the mushrooms and tomatoes.