Japanese Street Fare: Introducing Yakitori

I got a new Cuisine at Home magazine last week that had so many amazing recipes in it! I am a HUGE fan of cooking magazines because they promise to deliver many wonderful recipes every month and a subscription really is easy to finance (especially being young and on the way to the alter!). 

This month featured a Japanese Street Fare section with amazing and fun recipes. So I decided to go for it with some Yakitori and Grilled Rice Cakes! 

The rice cakes fell apart on the grill so there's some tweaking that needs to be done there, but they were tasty nonetheless! First, the delicious yakitori!

Ingredients: 

• 1 cup chicken broth
• 3/4 cup soy sauve
• 1/2 cup mirin (sake)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 4 cloves minced garlic
• 6 thin slices of fresh ginger (I just used 2 Tablespoons of crushed ginger I already had) 
• 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil 
• 1 Tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 Tablespoon water
• 1 1/2 pound boneless skinless chicken breast
• 2 bunches scallions 

Directions: 

1. Preheat the grill to medium-high. Brush the grate with sesame oil. 
2. For the sauce, combine the broth, soy sauce, mirin, sugar, garlic, ginger, and sesame oil in a saucepan over high heat. 
3. When the sauce comes to a boil, reduce the heat to medium and simmer for ten minutes. 
4. Combine the cornstarch and water in a small bowl, then stir into the sauce. 
5. Bring the sauce back to a boil and cook for five minutes. 
6. Strain the sauce and reserve 1/2 cup for dipping later. 
7. While the sauce boils, slice the chicken breasts and scallions into 2-inch-wide pieces. 
8. Skewer chicken and scallions alternating onto sets of double skewers. 
9. Baste the meat with the sauce and grill skewers covered for two minutes on each side. 
10. Flip and baste. 
11. Continue grilling and basting the chicken until cooked thoroughly, about 12 minutes. 
12. Enjoy! 

And now for the rice cakes... Which I'm still working to perfect! 

Sorry for the lack of a picture for you... They didn't fare well after the grill and J and I devoured them.

Ingredients: 

• 1 cup dry, short-grain white rice (in other words sushi rice)
• 1/3 cup frozen edamame, shelled and thawed
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup mirin
• 1 Tablespoon prepared wasabi

Directions: 

1. Cook the rice according to the package directions. (Mine didn't have any so I used a rice cooker and it worked wonders!) 
2. After it's done cooking gently stir in the edamame. 
3. For the sauce, combine soy sauce and mirin in a small saucepan over high heat and allow to reduce by about a third. 
4. Transfer the sauce into a small bowl and stir in the wasabi until dissolved. 
5. Transfer 1/4 cup cooked to a plastic bag. Shape the rice into a big triangle using the corner of the bag. 
6. Repeat with rice to form 7 more triangles. 
7. Grill bakes until marked, 2 minutes per side. 
8. Dip cakes in sauce, then grill 1 minute more on each side to set the sauce. 
9. Remove from grill. 
10. Enjoy! 

*Simply Sweet Note: Two hints for you... [1] Don't wait for the rive to cool before forming it into little cakes, do that while it's still warm so they stick more and [2] Be VERY careful with the sauce on the rice cakes, it can easily over water them.