I used to buy Teriyaki marinade for salmon and chicken until I learnt how simple and quick it was to just do your own. So, today I'm just going to lay out the steps to making a really simple marinade for your fish (or chicken).

Before I go too far, let me add that everyone seems to have their perfect mix of ingredients for this marinade, so if this mix is not too your taste then just tweak it!

Ingredients

Soy sauce (light)
Mirin
Sake
Sugar
Flour
Oil (olive) for pan frying
Salmon (or chicken)

The recipe

Mix the soy sauce, mirin, sake and sugar in a bowl. I use the ratio two soy with 1 of each of the others, although I go a touch lighter on the sugar otherwise it ends up being too sweet. Not too little, because it is needed to make the sauce sticky! What you see here is just one tablespoon of each (and 2 of the soy) which is enough for the amount of salmon that is in the pictures.

Wash the salmon in water and dry well with paper towelling and then cut into strips about 4cm thick. I prefer to use salmon with the skin, but it works just as well without.

Have the oil in a hot pan ready to pan fry. Roll the salmon in flour and put straight into the pan to fry in the oil. Let it brown nicely (it should be crisp) before turning over.

After turning, I pour some sake over the salmon and cover it until the bottom is also nicely brown and crisp.

Pull the salmon off the pan onto paper towelling and turn off the heat while keeping the pan on the hot stove. Pour the Teriyaki mix into the pan.

Keep stirring the mix, it will be by bubbling furiously (assuming your plan is still hot!) but not burning if you turned the heat off. It will start to get sticky, and when it is you just add the salmon back in and roll it around in the sauce.

And it's ready to serve! Time to prepare and cook is less than 30 minutes.

Other stuff?

I recommend Japanese short grain rice. After you cook it, transfer to a mixing hole and add a generous amount of rice vinegar and stir it through. Add a touch of rice seasoning, and you have some really tasty rice!

For the veggies, I love Chinese Choy Sum. Just a quick dunk in boiling water (like 20-30 seconds), and served with minced ginger and oyster sauce.

Photos are all mine, no one would want to claim them anyway... Apologies for the uncentered photos, I know it drives some people nuts, but I'm in a phone and if I have to write the code for centering that many times, I will go nuts!