Below you will find a delicious teriyaki recipe I patched together form numerous others and refined through several iterations. I love teriyaki and was having trouble finding one I really liked off the shelf at the grocery store, I discovered several years ago that I and the sweetener "High Fructose Corn Syrup" (HFCS) do not get along.  It is much like the experience of being lactose intolerant.  In fact I thought that was the case because the effect was particularly bad after eating ice cream. 


   Anyway, I check the label… ALWAYS.  So, I found a good teriyaki sauce and it was like $5 a bottle.  That is when my search began.  The recipe below has been described as “off the chain”, “off the hook”, and “the bomb” by those with whom I have shared it.  I almost always use it on chicken wings.  The preparation of the sauce takes about 45-60 minutes. 


   It takes about 2 hours to prepare the wings just right.  The process isn’t difficult, just time consuming.  First, I simmer the wings in the teriyaki sauce for about 30 minutes; this way I can cook them from frozen.  Then I preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  I prepare a cookie sheet by lining it with Reynolds Non-Stick Foil.  Place the wings on the cookie sheet with the side having the thicker skin facing up; this will help them hold the sauce better.  Cook them for 30 minutes.  While the wings are cooking simmer the sauce, stirring occasionally, to allow it to thicken.  After the first 30 minutes of cooking, baste the wings with the sauce and cook another 15 minutes.  Continue simmering the sauce while basting the wings until it is about as thick as pancake syrup; use your own judgment.  Repeat the basting process at least two (2) more times for a total of three (3); I usually do it a total of four (4) times.  You should have a nice sticky batch of teriyaki wings when you are done.  You can serve them by themselves or with rice.  ENJOY!

Awesome Teriyaki (makes about 4 cups)

INGREDIENTS:

Soy Sauce (low sodium is ok)

Aji-Mirin (or just mirin)

Rice Wine Vinegar

Dark Brown Sugar

Garlic

Ground Ginger

Honey (substitutable with regular sugar)

Sesame Oil

Green Onions

Pineapple juice

Toasted Sesame Seeds

Corn Starch 

INSTRUCTIONS: 

ADD: (in at least a 3 quart sauce pan) 

2 cups Soy sauce

½ cup aji-mirin

½ cup rice wine vinegar

1-½ cups brown sugar 

BRING TO BOIL (goes from boil to boil over really fast) REDUCE HEAT TO SIMMER: (let simmer while preparing other ingredients) 

ADD:  

4 TBPS (1 entire bulb) finely minced garlic

2 TBPS ground Ginger

½ cup honey (substitutable with ½ cup sugar)

4 TBPS sesame oil

5-6 green onions (1 bunch) diced 

SIMMER (about 30 minutes on LOW).

After cooking is complete:

ADD: 

2 TBPS corn starch mixed together with 1 cup (COLD) pineapple juice

¼ cup toasted sesame seed 

LET COOL AND BOTTLE OR USE!!! 

First Post! 

   A little about me.  I was born and raised in Michigan.  When I graduated high school I grew bored, so I joined the Army.  My first duty station was in California and I fell in love with both the state and my wife.  Three kids and many years/duty stations later I retired from military service in Kansas, but vowed to get back to California.  After four more years of living in Kansas, (working hard, going to school and applying to government service jobs), I am happy to say we are back in California!
 
   I am now extending my Associates Degree I earned in Kansas to a Bachelors Degree through the 2+2 Partnership Program that the Manhattan Area Technical College (MATC) has with Kansas State University (KSU) through online courses.  This blog is part of that quest.  I had some trouble deciding what to blog about, but after this weekend  (explained in my second post) I was commited to share some of my own food creations and teriffic recipe finds I have come across for delicious foods.

   I am looking forward to sharing delicious recipes I find as well as some of my own creations. I will start out with my latest creation... a Moogle Cake. For those that do not know what a Moogle is, it is a creature from the popular Final Fantasy (FF) game series. I found the picture I wished to emulate in the cake design and did my best to mimic it. I will post pictures of the original picture and the final resultant cake. I'll let you be the judge of my success.

   This is one in a line of personalized cakes I have made for my kids birthdays. Last year was a Cactuar, another FF creature. If you haven't noticed by now I am a bit of FF fan. Actually, I am a fan of most of the games produced by Square-Enix. I will provide videos of the FF creatures in action  for those who desire a little more background on the creatures mentioned.

                

Moogle Video

Cactuar Video