Teriyaki Pork Bento and Shiokoji

I'm in the middle of the long holiday right now. We're going on a trip to Sapporo tomorrow. It looks like it's going to be an unplanned and footloose one. But I just can't wait to go shopping over there. Before leaving for the trip I have a few things to post. Oh yeah!! Today's bento! Meat bentos continue. Yuppi requested pork teriyaki for bento. She is a huge meat lover, which is why most of my bentos have had a meat dish lately. Maybe she can't live without it lol. By the way, when you wonder what ingredients to use for teriyaki cooking, you could basically use the same amount of syoyu and sugar. Many Japanese like sweet salty meat dishes such as teriyaki chicken, sukiyaki, yakitori... If you like your teriyaki food less sweet, reduce the sugar depending on your taste. And add some mirin or sake to it if you like. But when I have honey on hand I use it instead of sugar or mirin. Since honey gives extra taste to food, you don't have to add anything else to it but syoyu. Plus another good thing is that honey is preservative. Isn't it a perfect seasoning for bento dishes? If you don't mind the flavor of honey, give it a try.





Talking of extra taste, I made shiokoji the other day. Do you know of shio-koji? It's a super versatile seasoning made with rice malt and salt, which is all the rage in Japan these days. You can use it instead of salt for pretty much any cooking.



Here is the way it was right after being mixed. It became somewhat smoother after a few days.



Guess what, my usual pork saute and shio kyabetsu (popular cabbage salad with a salt dressing) turned out much yummier by using shiokoji!! I say, it's a miracle seasoning! Not only does it add extra taste to ingredients, but also makes meat more tender because of the enzyme in it. I feel like I was way too behind because I knew that shiokoji-making had become popular since years ago, but somehow I wasn't so interested in making it. Ah anyway it is true that shiokoji is a super fermented seasoning in many ways. And I think it's an ideal seasoning for vegetarian cooking as well because it can make food tastier without using animal products. I will share one of standard recipes I used this time if requested. I'm excited thinking of making a yogurt shiokoji sauce! Huh, does that sound weird??