Grilled Japanese Recipes - How To Make Them Taste Amazing

Just like with any other cuisine, Japanese cooking has changed over the years to become what it is today. This change is the result of a lot of social and political changes, as well as the influx of western culture and recipes. A lot of Japanese recipes are based on using seasonal ingredients, presenting the food in a special way, and using top quality ingredients.

Cooking methods in Japan include stir frying, sauteing, baking, and deep frying, as well as the famous Hibachi grill. A Hibachi grill is a big, heated metal plate and a lot of restaurants cook your food right in front of you on the grill. This is a convenient cooking method, although it does not do much for the flavor of the food. Meat or seafood cooked over an open fire is going to end up being a lot more flavorful than something cooked on a piece of metal, so you need to season and flavor the food before or during the cooking process.

What Makes Japanese Food So Special?

Strangely enough, the thing that makes this cuisine so special is something that is lost on many people. Fresh meat, vegetables, and seafood cooked quickly over a high heat form the basis of many Japanese dishes.

In westernized Asian restaurants, overly heavy and sweet sauces are ladled on to the food and that is when you lose the flavor. A little seasoning, marinade, or sauce is a good idea but the key is using such ingredients in moderation, to enhance the natural meat, seafood, or vegetable flavor, not to completely overwhelm and lose it.

Authentic beef teriyaki is made by marinating a good quality piece of steak in teriyaki sauce and then grilling it fast and hot, occasionally brushing some of the marinade over the meat. Serve it with a little teriyaki sauce on the side. If you have been to a westernized restaurant, you might have been served a piece of meat, which is smothered in thick teriyaki sauce. You will not be able to taste the meat at all.

The sauce is supposed to enhance the wonderful beef taste, not drown it out entirely. The same goes for fish and seafood recipes. A light marinade or small serving of sauce is more authentic than drowning your ingredients in sauce and wiping out their delicate flavor.

A lot of modern Japanese restaurants have evolved from grilled dishes to fast and easy stovetop meals. It is well worth tracing the history of Japanese food though and recreating flavorful dishes from the orient. The following recipe shows you how to flavor your fish before you cook it.

Recipe For Marinated Grilled Salmon

What You Need:

4 salmon steaks, 1 inch thick
2 tablespoons tomato sauce
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon minced ginger
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup thawed orange juice concentrate
1/2 teaspoon yellow mustard
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon minced green onions
1 minced clove garlic

Combine the orange juice concentrate, soy sauce, tomato sauce, ginger, garlic, mustard, lemon juice, vegetable oil, green onion and mustard in a glass dish. Add the fish and turn it over to coat. Cover and marinate for half an hour to one hour.

Preheat your grill to a high heat. Take the salmon out of the marinade and boil the marinade for a minute. Oil the grill grate and brush the olive oil over the fish. Cook it for about eight minutes in total or until it flakes with a fork. Flip the fish halfway through the cooking time, brushing the boiled marinade over it. Serve hot with rice and a tossed salad.

If you enjoy grilling, you might like to give your seafood a traditional Japanese touch. When the weather is cooler, a warming pot of seafood chowder is another way to use fish and seafood to make a wonderful meal.

A Guide to the Freshest Seafood in Los Angeles - LosAngelesSeafood.net

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