Yakitori comes from Japan and are chicken skewers that are glazed in a sweet soy based sauce. They can be made with protein alone or mixed up with different vegetables. I used Japanese eggplant, red bell pepper and green onions in mine.
I know its the middle of Fall and I am bringing out the barbecue. I forget how cold it is in certain parts of the world right now. If it's too cold to barbecue, add a tablespoon or so of olive oil and stir fry all the ingredients in a large pan over medium high heat, until cooked, about 8 to 10 minutes.
I kept this dish simple and served the skewers with a side of short grain brown rice. YUM!
Ingredients
* 1/3 cup Tamari
* 1/3 cup mirin
* 1/4 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
* 1 Tb rice wine ( I used cooking sake )
* 2 Tb fresh ginger, grated
* 1 pound prepared seitan ( I used this recipe )
* 2 red bell peppers
* 2 Japanese eggplants or any other type of slender eggplant
* 1 bunch green onions
Directions
1. Place the tamari, mirin, brown sugar, rice wine and ginger in a medium sized bowl and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Place half of the sauce aside.
2. Add the seitan to the bowl with the remaining other half of the sauce. Stir well to coat the seitan. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to marinate for 4 hours or up to overnight.
3. Remove seitan from marinade and start assembling your skewers. (If using bamboo skewers, allow to soak in water for about an hour). Thread the seitan, bell pepper, eggplant and green onions onto each skewer.
4. Preheat a barbecue grill, coat each skewer with a little olive oil to help prevent it from sticking to the grill. Also do a light coat on each skewer of the left over marinade. Add the skewers to the barbecue and cook, turning occasionally for 10 minutes or until browned slightly and cooked.
5. Place the remaining sauce in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 2 minutes or until thickened.
6. To serve, place the skewers on a plate along with the sauce.
