The classic "Teriyaki" sauce with many other uses

Ingredients:

1/2 cup mirin
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup white wine
2 teaspoons dark sesame oil
3 tablespoons maple syrup, grade "b"
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 cup scallion, chopped

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a medium sized saucepan except for the scallions. Bring to boil and slowly simmer until a syrup consistency is achieved, about a 50 percent reduction in total volume.

Let cool completely.

Add the scallions and use as needed.

Notes:

What Is Teriyaki?

Teriyaki dishes are found in many different type of cuisine nowadays, even in Mexican and Western dishes. Then, what is teriyaki? It's a way of Japanese cooking. The word, teriyaki is a combination of two Japanese words "teri" and "yaki." Teri means luster and yaki means grill or broil. To make a traditional teriyaki dish, ingredients are broiled, roasted, or grilled after being marinated in or basted by teriyaki sauce. It's the teriyaki sauce that brings the shiny look (teri) to the ingredients, although any dish cooked with teriyaki sauce seems to be called teriyaki nowadays, whether the ingredients are Japanese or not.

Teriyaki and Mirin (Japanese Sweet Cooking Wine) The key ingredient in a classic teriyaki sauce is mirin. Mirin adds luster to ingredients when it's cooked and adds nice aroma. Since it is effective in masking the smell of fish, using mirin for teriyaki seafood dishes is a good idea if you use poor quality fish. The
sweetness of mirin is different from that of sugar. It's a perfect seasoning to add a mild sweetness to Japanese cooking.

The use of mirin is said to have begun over 400 years ago. Although it was used for drinking in the beginning, it has been used for only cooking since it was made to be thicker and sweeter. Steamed mochigome rice, komekoji (rice yeast), and shochu (Japanese liquor) are mixed and and fermented to make mirin.

Mirin is clear and light gold in color and is usually sold in a bottle. There are two types of mirin: hon mirin and shin mirin. The difference is the amount of alcohol. Hon mirin contains nearly 14% alcohol. Hon mirin was available only at alcohol retailers until December 1997, but now it's sold at supermarkets too. Shin mirin has less than 1% alcohol but has the same flavor as hon mirin, so it's commonly used for cooking.