Sake

A short list of ingredients comes together in this elegant sake martini.

Negima—chicken placed alternately on a skewer with green onion or scallion—is one of the most popular yakitori dishes.

Tender pieces of chicken fillet (a.k.a. chicken tenders) are marinated in miso, yuzu zest, mirin, and sake for a delicate sweet-salty flavor.

Chicken tenders, which are cut from the breast, are grilled or broiled on bamboo skewers.

This lightly miso-marinated salmon is served with a bright green spinach sauce underneath.

This simple grilled or broiled preparation helps fresh shiitake mushrooms shine. Serve the grilled mushrooms garnished with grated daikon and yuzu.

The best tsukune, or Japanese chicken meatballs, are nicely caramelized, well seasoned, and juicy—and served straight off the grill.

Poach turkey in an anise, ginger, and scallion broth, then shred the meat and toss with a savory, lard-enriched sauce for this traditional Taiwanese preparation.

The cherry blossom, as well as the addition of sake and maraschino liqueur to the usual gin, result in a very delicate Martini.

Served with a bright, refreshing radish salad, these salty, sweet, and shatteringly crisp glazed thighs will satisfy all your classic chicken teriyaki cravings.

The homemade Sichuan chili paste and chili oil yield more than you need for this cold ramen recipe, but they will keep for weeks and make for great all-purpose condiments. Or you can just make this dish over and over.

The secret to juicy, tender, delicately steamed white-meat chicken and squash? Going slow.

Luscious salmon glazed in a mixture of sake, mirin, and soy sauce.

Sam Hazen, the former executive chef of New York celebrity hangout Tao, created this broiled fish dish seasoned with the Japanese trifecta of sake, mirin, and miso. A great riff on beef satay, this appetizer can be marinated up to a day ahead for a quick weeknight snack or full meal when served with rice. Avoid unsustainable Chilean sea bass; look for white sea bass from California, black cod, Pacific or Alaskan halibut, or striped bass.

The eggplant can also be served as an hors d’oeuvre, cut into bite-size pieces.

You can make this ever-popular Japanese dish with boneless chicken breasts, and it’s great that way, but the breasts have a tendency to overcook. Better to use boneless or even bone-in thighs. The technique remains the same no matter what cut you use (and even if you use salmon or beef; see pages 255 and 360); only the cooking time differs. Teriyaki does not really produce a sauce, but a glaze, so something like Basmati Rice with Shiso (page 510) is preferable to plain rice (though plain rice is perfectly fine). A good salad with soy vinaigrette (page 601) is another fine pairing.

Yakitori shops—small places, mostly joints, where you sit at the counter—specialize in chicken, though you can use this sauce and technique for almost anything that can be cut into bite-sized pieces: chicken wings, chicken skin, chicken livers or gizzards, bits of pork, shiitake mushrooms, scallions, even garlic cloves. Sometimes different things are combined on skewers, too, so feel free to go that route. A good hot fire, preferably made with real charcoal (not gas and certainly not briquettes) is requisite. Chicken thighs are often boned before sale; if you can find only bone-in thighs, you will quickly figure out how to remove the meat from them—it’s simple (and the bones make great stock). Do not use breasts in this recipe unless you are a fan of dry meat. As long as you have the grill going, you might make some Roasted Red Peppers (page 470). Or, if you feel like it, Sautéed Peppers with Miso (page 78). Either is a great accompaniment. Shichimi pepper is a spice mixture sold in Japanese markets.

Tenderloin—most commonly sold as filet mignon—has just about the least flavor of any cut of beef, but it is wonderfully tender and juicy, and it sure takes well to this sauce, which everyone seems to love. I’m not usually a big fan of long marinating periods, but here it seems to make a big difference; the miso completely changes the flavor of the meat in a spectacular way. I grill these, but you can broil the meat or roast it at 500°F for just a few minutes. (In any case, cook until the interior of the meat is about 125°F.) Other cuts of meat you can use here: ribeye; pork tenderloin, cut into medallions as you would the filet.

Teriyaki is an old preparation, but using steak is relatively new, as beef was not widely eaten in Japan until the second half of the twentieth century. So this might be considered a new classic. I love it with a simple salad (you might use Sesame-Miso Dressing, page 190) and perhaps Basmati Rice with Shiso (page 510). Other cuts of meat you can use here: the teriyaki treatment is widely used for chicken, bone in or out (see page 317), pork, and shrimp.

Bitter melon is a cucurbit; so is cucumber, and they resemble one another. (But so is a cantaloupe, so the melon reference isn’t far off.) Its flavor, though, is akin to that of green peppers, which are much easier to find. Serve this over white rice. If you have access to bitter melons, by all means use them; cut them in half the long way, then scoop out the seeds and fluffy insides, which are like those found in overripe zucchini, before chopping and proceeding as directed. Fermented black beans are available at most Asian markets and many supermarkets (see page 207). The lamb will be easier to slice if you freeze it for 30 minutes or so.

A quick and simple dish, one that produces a beautiful sauce to use on white rice. Halibut is ideal here, but swordfish steaks are great too, and you can even make this preparation with thick white fillets of grouper, red snapper, or sea bass. Use dashi (which can be prepared in just a few minutes) if at all possible, chicken stock if not.

Unless you live in Alaska or know a good fishmonger in the Pacific Northwest, it’s almost impossible to buy Dungeness crab that has not already been cooked. That’s not a problem; they can still be steamed, as they are here. This is a subtle preparation, but Dungeness is so wonderful that’s all it takes. (You can use lobster if you prefer.)