Easy Demi Glace Substitute Recipe

Whether you're making hambagu (ハンバーグ) steak or omurice (オムライス), you'll need some demi glace sauce for your dish. Don't have all of the ingredients and over ten hours to make a traditional demi glace? See below for a quick and easy substitute sauce!

I was in my bedroom from when I was a teenager, and it was night time. My birth father and birth mother were asleep. I was looking out of my window in awe, because the planets, a comet, and the cosmos in general were easier to see than what is actually possible.

The planets looked incredibly large and close to Earth, and I could see constellations easier, specifically Orion. Even the rings of Jupiter were visible. The other planets looked like how they appear in photos, but Jupiter was a large, round sapphire orb, and its “rings” appeared as a giant brass or tarnished gold ring that slowly rotated around the planet.

The night sky and planets were so beautiful to look at. I felt awe at the sight of them, but also terror.

I was stargazing out of the window when I heard some rustling at my bedroom door. I looked up and saw that my birth mother was struggling with a Vera Bradley-style duffel bag that my Mom (I'm adopted) gave me years ago. My birth mother had apparently hid the bag in my room, full of her clothes so she could sneak out while my father and I were asleep.

I didn’t realize that she was trying to escape, and in my ignorance and innocence, told her to look at the stars, since they were so beautiful to see and I didn’t know if the sky would appear like that again. She acted like she couldn’t hear me, so I raised my voice. Eventually she looked up, looking startled and much younger than I remember. She immediately ran out of the house, got into her car, and drove away.

My yelling woke up my father, and he found me looking at the planets. He saw that my birth mother’s car was gone. I felt a brief moment of fear when he entered my room. He was an abusive person, and I feared that waking him was enough to incur his violent wrath.

Instead, he looked sad and just kind of walked out into the night. Not to go after my birth mother, but just to get lost. I felt guilty that she’d almost not escaped my father due to my yelling, but was glad she eventually did.

I had a landline phone in my room, and realized I felt lonely and didn’t want to stargaze alone. I dialed my present cell phone number, but messed up one of the numbers. A young lady from Illinois picked up. She was traveling in California and was in the ER. Her cell phone was low on battery.

She’d been accidentally stabbed, but was going to be okay. I told her I was sorry about the misdial (I was worried she’d think it was a prank call) and her injury, but she wasn’t bothered. We exchanged names to see if we knew each other, but we didn’t. I implored her to feel better and look at the stars when she was able to leave the hospital.

Somehow I knew what she looked like, a slightly taller than average Caucasian girl with light brown hair. Definitely not me or any version of me. I also knew she went to college in Wisconsin, or was going to. She was being treated for her wound and promised she’d look at the stars that night. We both wondered out loud to each other why and how conditions were just right so that we could see the cosmos so vividly, appearing so close to Earth.

We hung up, and I kept watching the planets and stars twinkle, and followed a comet with my eyes as it passed Orion. I felt more awe and wonder at the sight of it all, and less terror. I felt a gnawing loneliness, not from having just lost my birth parents to the night, but that I was certain I'd never speak to the woman from the phone again. At least, not in this life.

Easy Demi Glace Substitute Sauce Recipe

Ingredients:

¼ cup of ketchup

2 tablespoons of Worchestershire sauce

1 tablespoon of soy sauce or tamari (ideally not a sweet soy sauce)

1 tablespoon of honey

Directions:

In a small mixing bowl, combine all of the ingredients and whisk them together with a fork. That's it! You now have a substitute demi glace sauce good to use with hambagu steak or omurice. You can also use this instead of tonkatsu sauce if you're out, too! Cover and refrigerate any leftovers and use within three days.