Unagi sauce is a traditional Japanese dressing for smoked eel. But that was before. Now it is served with a wide variety of dishes, for example, rolls or seafood. Different fish and even rice. Fragrant sauce with the color of burnt caramel and a pleasant aftertaste also pleases meat lovers. Now gas station is becoming very popular with us, why not learn how to cook it at home? There are tons of interesting but simple recipes.
Unagi sauce - general principles of preparation
• Soy sauce. One of the main ingredients of the Japanese "Unagi". It is added in large quantities, gives a beautiful color, rich taste, perfectly ennobles and makes it unnecessary to collect different ingredients separately. Soy sauce is usually boiled with other components of the recipe.
• Wine. It can be a plain white wine or the Japanese grade Mirin. Often several types of alcohol are added to the sauce. Even sake may be present. Alcohol is always cooked, boiled with soy sauce and other ingredients.
• Sugar, honey. Despite their presence in wine, the pronounced taste of soy sauce, sugar and honey are almost always added during the preparation process. If you do not need too sugary refueling, then you can reduce the amount.
• Other additives. Vegetables are often put in unagi. Ginger, for density, potato or corn starch is added. The classic sauce is sweet and salty. But if necessary, you can add pungency to it, using pepper or a little acid, lemon juice is useful for this.
• Features of cooking. Unagi is convenient to cook on the stove in a saucepan. Classic sauce is prepared for a long time, the mass is boiled. May burn. That is why now recipes with starch are very popular, allowing you to quickly thicken the mass at any stage.
Unagi sauce with white and rice wine
A very interesting recipe for Unagi sauce for which it is best to use semi-dry wine. But if this is not the case, then a dry drink will go. Additionally, you need rice wine, as well as dry concentrated fish stock, which is often found in Japanese cuisine.
Ingredients
• 160 ml of soy sauce;
• 200 ml of wine;
• 2 tbsp. l Sahara;
• 200 ml of Mirin rice wine;
• 1 tsp dry fish stock (hondashi).
Cooking
1. Combine both types of wine in a saucepan, dilute with soy sauce. We put on the stove.
2. As soon as the mixture boils, set the fire to a minimum, evaporate with very weak boiling half the liquid.
3. After 15-20 minutes, add dry fish broth, stir to dissolve. If you cannot find a special broth, you can try adding a third of the concentrated cube.
4. Once the sauce has settled, it will take about one hour, remove the saucepan from the heat. The mass should become thicker, get a dark caramel flavor.
5. In the hot sauce, add granulated sugar and mix again.
6. If desired, season the Unagi sauce with hot cayenne pepper.
Unagi butter sauce with honey and ginger
A simple version of the popular Unagi sauce with fresh ginger and honey. It is great for eel, but can be combined with other types of fish and seafood. In addition, a little corn starch is needed to thicken the mass. If necessary, replace it with a potato product.
Ingredients
• 50 ml of soy sauce;
• 3 grams of starch;
• 10 grams of honey;
• 5 grams of fresh ginger root;
• 50 ml of olive oil.
Cooking
1. Combine olive oil and honey, pour them into a small saucepan, put on the stove. Let them heat up for now.
2. Starch mixed with soy sauce, pour into oil.
3. Grate peeled ginger root. But you can just chop it very finely. Add to other sauce ingredients.
4. Cook over very low heat for several minutes. In no case do not let the mass boil, so as not to spoil the taste.
5. Remove from heat.
6. Cool the aromatic sauce, water the fish or serve with any other dishes.
Smoked Eel Unagi Sauce
For this version of Unagi sauce you will need quite a bit of smoked eel, but it is this supplement that will make it special, incredibly aromatic and mouth-watering.
Ingredients
• 200 grams of good soy sauce;
• 2/3 cups of purified water;
• 15 grams of starch;
• 240 grams of Mirin wine;
• 120 grams of granulated sugar;
• 60 grams of smoked eel.
Cooking
1. Combine wine, half of the recipe water and soy sauce. Stir well, put on the stove.
2. When boiling, remove the fire, boil for about three minutes.
3. Add granulated sugar. If the soy sauce is slightly salted, then you can take granulated sugar slightly less than the specified norm. We continue to cook the sauce.
4. Cut into very small pieces of eel, pour in a couple of minutes in a saucepan. Bring to a boil.
5. Dissolve the prescription starch in the remaining water. We take the liquid cold so that no lumps form.
6. Pour the starch into the pan. We’re not in a hurry, stir well with the other hand.
7. We continue to warm the mass until it becomes thick and transparent. White haze from starch should disappear.
8. Remove from heat. Let the eel sauce brew to reveal its taste.
Unagi sauce with sake and vegetables
An interesting recipe for Unagi sauce for those who have some rice vodka in the kitchen. Additionally, you need white dry wine.
Ingredients
• 100 g of honey;
• 0.2 tbsp. sake;
• 180 ml of white wine;
• carrot;
• onion;
• two cloves of garlic;
• a glass of soy sauce;
• 180 ml of water;
• 15 g of starch.
Cooking
1. We combine water with honey, add soy sauce. We put this mixture on the stove. Bring almost to a boil.
2. Cut cloves of garlic, peeled onion and carrot into small pieces, slices or cubes.
3. Add vegetables to the boiled mixture of soy sauce with water. Tomim on a small fire for about a quarter of an hour.
4. We filter the broth. We throw out the vegetables, they will not be useful to us, but before that we squeeze it well to extract the taste. The liquid is returned to the saucepan.
5. Now add the wine and pour the sake, stir, set the sauce to boil again.
6. We measure out 50 ml of water, dissolve the prescription starch.
7. Fill the sauce with starch. We boil the mass until it acquires the consistency of jelly.
8. Remove from heat, cool.
Recipe rolls with Unagi sauce, eel and sesame seeds
Famous rolls with Unagi sauce. For cooking, you need cooked rice for sushi. It can be prepared according to any of the available recipes.
Ingredients
• 100 g eel fillet;
• rice for sushi (ready);
• cucumber;
• seeds for sushi;
• unagi sauce;
• nori leaf;
• 2 tablespoons spicy sauce.
Cooking
1. Fry sesame seeds simply in a dry skillet. You do not need to brown them, just slightly dry until a pleasant aroma appears.
2. Put rice on the noriya sheet, but not completely. We leave the upper part free. Sprinkle rice with sesame seeds, squeeze, gently invert.
3. Lubricate with spicy sauce, lay out strips of cucumber and pieces of eel. We also apply a little sauce on them to make the rolls juicy.
4. Twist the roll. Leave for five minutes.
5. With a sharp knife, cut the roll into eight parts. Lay on a serving plate.
6. We put unagi sauce next to it, serve the dish with it, and add marinated ginger.
Unagi quick garlic sauce
A variant of a very simple Unagi sauce with a light garlic flavor. It is preparing really fast and easy.
Ingredients
• a glass of soy sauce;
• three cloves of garlic;
• 0.5 cups of white wine;
• 0.3 cups of water;
• 30 g of sugar;
• 1 tsp grated ginger;
• 1 tsp starch;
• 1 tsp oil olives.
Cooking
1. Grind garlic and ginger. Add sugar to them, combined with starch.
2. Dilute all this with liquid ingredients. Pour wine with water and soy sauce in any order, the main thing is to shake everything well so that the lumps are not happy.
3. Put on the stove, bring to a boil. As soon as the sauce begins to thicken, pour a few drops of oil and you can remove the saucepan from the heat.
4. Immediately, until the mass has cooled, we filter unagi through a sieve to get rid of the remnants of garlic and ginger.
5. Cool, use for cooking Japanese dishes!
Chicken with Unagi Sauce
Fish is often served with unagi, it is added to rice and sushi, but few people know about the perfect combination of sauce with chicken. A recipe for a very simple but tasty and quick chicken fillet dish.
Ingredients
• 500 g of chicken;
• 1 tsp curry seasonings;
• clove of garlic;
• 50 g unagi;
• sesame oil;
• 50 g of tomato ketchup.
Cooking
1. Wash the chicken, cut into small cubes.
2. Heat a little oil in a frying pan. If the surface is non-stick, then one spoon is enough. We spread the fillet, fry for a couple of minutes over high heat.
3. Grind the garlic. Combine with curry seasoning and tomato ketchup, add 30 ml of water. Stir.
4. Spread tomato sauce for chicken, reduce heat, cook for two minutes.
5. Now add unagi to the chicken. We cover the pan, simmer its fillet for a couple of minutes.
6. Open, fry until the whole sauce is absorbed in the fillet, but stir constantly so that nothing burns.
7. Transfer the chicken to the plates, sprinkle with sesame seeds.
Unagi sauce - useful tips and tricks
• Not all soy sauces are the same. In our stores, the choice is not very large, but you should take care of finding a real product, not salted tinted water. Only in this case will the unagi turn out as it should.
• No fresh ginger? You can add a little dried to the dish, only reduce the amount at least twice.
• If you add a lot of garlic and ginger to unagi, you get the equally famous Teriyaki sauce.
