Teriyaki Sauce

Nothing can replace a simple meal. A new preparation, however, can spruce it up instantly.

Last week, John mentioned he’d like fish for dinner. This is not surprising; we usually eat seafood a few times a week. Instead of my usual baked-salmon-with-lemon-and-dill, I decided to go Asian and douse the fish with a homemade teriyaki sauce.

What a difference this sauce made! Seriously easy, seriously yummy, and seriously going on my list of “must save” recipes.

Not a fan of seafood? No problem. This would easily work with chicken, steak, veggies, whatever you like. We happen to love salmon, though, and thought the teriyaki paired perfectly with the fish.

Directions
Are you ready for this? Okay, combine all ingredients in a bowl. Mix together. Refrigerate.

That’s it.

I told you this was simple. I’ll walk you through it, anyway.

Pour your soy sauce and sesame oil into a small bowl.

Juice two large oranges.

Cut off or peel the skin around a 1-2 inch piece of fresh ginger.

Mince finely.

Grab a small clove of garlic and mince.

Add fresh orange juice, ginger, garlic, and sesame seeds into the bowl.

Slice a few scallions.

Add them to the mix… and there you have it: teriyaki sauce!

Now that that’s done, I have to share a funny story with you.

On this night, my sweet, wonderful fiancé… was dropping things left and right. When I asked him to make some white rice, I had no idea we would wind up with rice flying all over our counter, on the burners of our stove, and completely covering our floor.

But that, my friends, is exactly what happened.

Probably two cups of rice, at least. Instead of getting angry (what’s the point?) I burst into laughter. Hey, it’s not like I was going to clean this mess up. I continued mixing the teriyaki sauce together as I watched poor John on his hands and knees trying to get the rice into one central pile on the floor.

“When we move out, it’ll be like a scavenger hunt. We’ll find rice and hazelnut shells from the Butternut Squash Ravioli all over the place.” These are the words of comfort he offered to me.

When it seemed like he had everything cleaned up, I went to put the fish in the oven… and what do I see? This.

That is definitely a piece of rogue rice hanging out on my salmon. I also found a few pieces in our salt container the next day.

And one in my cereal box.

Moral of the story? Marry someone you can laugh with. It makes everything better.

Second moral of the story: make this sauce tonight!