Batayaki (Butter Yaki)

Tom really liked the seafood batayaki dish we had on Valentine’s Day at Aji Limo in Hale’iwa. 

So, I will try to make it when we get home. 

What is batayaki? We didn’t know. It’s a Japanese Hawaiian way of cooking on a griddle using butter to fry the ingredients then dipping or coating them in a special sauce:

1 cup soy sauce (lite)

1/4 cup mirin (rice wine vinegar)

1/4 cup sugar

Sesame oil— just a little— a teaspoon

Lime juice of 2 limes

grated daikon (white radish) 

Some recipes have ajinomoto (MSG)—- which should be avoided due to its questionable health side effects, even though it is a flavor enhancer. 

Some recipes use lemons or orange juice but we really liked lime which was used in our seafood sauce. 

Our restaurant used sake which I will try, too, in place of the mirin. 

It is unclear how much daikon to use. Some recipes call for up to 1/2 cup but in the demos I saw they just grated some in over the top. 

The butter is the main flavoring agent so it is recommended that a good butter, like Irish butter is used. 

B