sake Archives | the non-japanese cook

This is the story of how I accidentally encountered ‘Quality OZEKI Sake’, a.k.a. OZEKI Junmai Sake.

Recently, I’ve been using a lot of sake in my cooking. It adds a sweet, umami rice note to simmered dishes and deglazes frying pans with a delicious waft of aroma. It’s indispensable for a great pork shogayaki.

Sake is mostly known as a drink, of course. But the stuff you can find in the ‘Asian Food’ section (near the mango juice, oyster sauce, ghee, and kimchi ramyeon) is usually not drinkable. In fact, it is probably less a true sake than a seasoning liquid with added salt, vinegar and distilled alcohol. This is no less fine to cook with!

Cheap cooking sake was precisely what I was looking for when rushing up and down my local Morrisons last night. To my initial dismay, I found only this bottle, priced at a disheartening £5.