DudeFood Tuesday: Yakitori (a lesson in why samurai are Dudes)
Today we have another history lesson in Dudeyness.
This time I want to talk about a group of very dudey men, the samurai from Japan.
And yes, I will throw in some Japanese, but don’t you worry for I wil translate as well.
After all, every Dude should know his Japanese with Dudey knights like the samurai were.
Samurai were a bunch of Dudes who were both feared and respected in Japan during the Middle ages. They were the best and most loyal warriors of the land and lived literally with their katanas, their swords.
Their katanas were supersharp. With one fierve chop they could slice a cow in half or skewer a big bird with one stab. One of the most famous chickenstabbers was Nakamura Yakitori, a fearsome warrior and a celebrated barbecue fan. A real samu dude in his own right.
Yakitori is Japanese for roasted (Yaki) and bird (tori) and now you can imagine how Nakamura earned his surname.
So never trust a restaurant that serves beef yakitori again, for they don’t speak their Japanese let alone know their Japanese kitchen.
Besides swordfighting experts these Asian knights were also extremely trained in a style of unarmed combat, commonly known as jiu jitsu, which translates roughly as the art of soft pressure.
But don’t get caught on the wrong foot at the word soft; they could kill you with even 1 finger!
Much less commonly known is that samurai could also kill with one small wooden splinter called the kushi (Japanese for wooden skewer).
Kushi jitsu (art of the wooden skewer) was a deadly technique with which the samurai offered his enemy a seemingly innocent piece of meat on a small skewer. The meat smelled and looked delicious but when you took your first bite from it the samurai told a very funny joke. His enemy had the laugh and swallowed the skewer whole. After this the samurai just turned his back on the enemy and let him choke to death. Kushi jitsu…
Ok, the samurai also tried to perfect the art of ikebana. Sounds dudey but this was the art of flower arranging. I admit: not so dudey at all.
Last but not least I want to mention the samurai tradition of shaving the top of their heads to a bald landing strip (how do you think these umbrella like helmets would hold?)
So me, with my bold head, I am like a natural born samurai dude.
To bring tribute to the samurai and Nakamura Yakitori in special I give you a recipe for the delicious but deadly yakitori skewers he used to slay his enemies without lifting a finger.
Be adviced: don’t eat this yakitori when your are watching a sitcom or you will befall a same fate as samudude Nakamura’s enemies. Death by skewer in the throat, that is.
Homemade Yakitori
Ingredients
- 400 gr Chickenfillet diced in 2cm pieces
- 4 spring onions sliced in 2cm pieces
- 4 tbsp ginger syrup
- 100 ml Soy sauce
- 150 ml Sake
- 75 ml mirin
- 1 tl Brown sugar
- 8 to t 10 skewers drench them in water for at least 15 minutes
Instructions
- Bring 75 ml sake (pour the other half of the sake in a glass), mirin, soy sauce, sugar and ginger syrup in a pan to a boil and let it simmer fora bout 5 mins on low heat. Stir regurarly. Pour 1 or 2 big spoons of this sauce in a small and deep baking tray and set the rest of the sauce aside.
- Put a piece of chicken and a piece of spring onion on a skewer. Finish the skewer by adding three more pieces of chicken and two more pieces of spring onion to it. Repeat this for the other skewers. While making the yakitori skewers, drink the sake that you’ve put in the glass.
- Preheat a grilling pan and meanwhile marinate the skewers in the sauce you put in the baking tray. Put the marinated skewers in the hot grilling pan and turn them every minute. Before turning brush them with some of the sauce from the baking tray. Keep turning and brushing until the chicken is cooked and the skerwers are nice and brown (should take 4 to 6 minutes).
- Serve with plain rice, noodles or as a snack. Sprinkle some fried onions over the yakitori and serve with some sauce you kept in the pan.
Disclaimer
The nutritional values above are calculated per portion. The details are based on standard nutritional tables and do not constitute a professional nutritional advice.
Oh, I love that dish! Delicious looking yakitori.
Cheers,
Rosa