vendredi, janvier 15, 2010

Tsukune (Grilled Chicken Meatballs in Sweet Yakitori Sauce)

Tsukune Don

The children love Japanese Yakitori or grilled meat skewers. This morning, I drove the Teenager to Modena centro for the Middle Years' visit to a Science Museum (they are studying about the human body now) and took the opportunity to shop at the covered market. The chicken stall had freshly minced chicken and that made me think of Tsukune or Grilled Chicken Meatballs in Sweet Yakitori Sauce - so that's the kids' dinner settled for this evening.

with the sauce
Tsukune :

500g minced Chicken
150g Onion, Leek or Spring Onions (chopped)
2 Tsp Sugar
1 Tbsp Shoyu or light soy sauce
1/2 Tsp Sesame Oil
3 Tbsp Sake
5 Tsp Cornstarch or plain flour
Salt and Pepper
1 Egg (beaten)

The Sweet Yakitori Sauce :
100ml Mirin
3 Tbsp Sake
100ml Shoyu
50g Sugar

Marinate the minced chicken with the chopped onions, sugar, sake, shoyu, sesame oil, egg and cornstarch.


Prepare the yakitori sauce by combining the mirin, sake, shoyu and sugar in a saucepan and heating it till the sugar is dissolved and the sauce has thickened.

raw meatballs

Shape the minced meat into balls.

after 10 minutes in the oven

During summer, I would bake the meatballs for 10 minutes in a hot oven, skewer them and then proceed to brush the meatballs with the sweet yakitori sauce as I grill them on a BBQ.

During winter, I bake them for a few minutes in the oven, cover them with the sweet yakitori sauce (that I didn't thicken too much in the saucepan) and return them to the oven for another 10 minutes, turning them over halfway through. Then I skewer them before serving them on steamed Japanese rice drenched in thickened sweet yakitori sauce and covered with chilli flakes and toasted sesame seeds.

8 commentaires:

Pris a dit…

This looks awesome! May I ask by "Sake" do you mean Japanese wine???

Beau Lotus 涟 a dit…

Yeap.

But if you don't have it, just substitute with Chinese rice wine, dry sherry or even white wine.

Nilmandra a dit…

That looks lovely! I must try that sometime *notes down* They would go perfectly in bento too :)

Beau Lotus 涟 a dit…

Hi Nilmandra, just saw from your blog that you are expecting your first child. Congratulations!

And yes, it would go well into one of your lovely bentos. :-)

Sonia ~ Nasi Lemak Lover a dit…

I must make this !! My kids will love it.Thanks for sharing.

Amanda a dit…

oh man, these all look soo so good! you should come and cook in my kitchen for a while!

SIG a dit…

Wow, you even know how to cook Japanese?? Amazing lady you are. They look gorgeous, by the way.

Beau Lotus 涟 a dit…

D, I've attended 2 Japanese cooking classes in Sgp, so I have a general idea of what the cuisine is about. Though I don't eat anything raw and I don't really like Japanese food except the usual tempura, teppanyaki, yakitori...