- ½ cup mirin (sweet cooking wine)
- ¼ cup sake (rice wine)
- ¼ cup shoyu (soy sauce)
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 4 garlic cloves, peeled
- 2 akatogarashi (Japanese dried red chile peppers)
- Pour the mirin and sake into a small saucepan, set it over medium heat, and bring to a simmer. Add the shoyu, sugar, garlic, and red chile pepper and cook, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Turn the heat to low and cook for 8 minutes. Remove the saucepan from the heat and cool. Store the sauce in a clean jar with a lid. The next day, remove the garlic (but leave the red chile pepper). The sauce keeps several months in the refrigerator.