Mustard-Miso Dressing: Karashi Sumiso-zoe

04Jan09

This dressing has a pleasant bitter/sharp taste good with shellfish, sashimi, sea vegetables, and parboiled vegetables. The recipe in The Japanese Kitchen illustrates using this dressing served with bright green asparagus, pink shrimp, and dark green wakame, served side-by-side. Keep that lovely word picture in your mind as you check out the picture I took when I first started cooking through this book—
—my camera was a brick of a thing with 2 pixel resolution, and my photo skills were about as sophisticated.
Those colors are just wrong!

Filed under: Japanese Food, Salads, Dressings, and Sauces   |  2 Comments
Tags: Aemono, Japanese Recipes

Tosazu: a versatile Japanese dressing

21Oct08

I served this dressing as a dipping sauce with gyuniku no ranpaku-age—miso-marinated beef in an egg-white jacket. It’s very strong, and a little goes a long way, but delicious. This dressing can be used to coat seasonal fresh fish, shellfish, sea vegetables, and fresh or cooked vegetables.

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Tags: Aemono, Japanese Cooking, Japanese Recipes

Japanese Black Sesame Dressing

23Aug08

This Japanese black sesame dressing is very dramatic! The flavor is distinctive and rich. Think about how few black foods we Westerners eat. Licorice. Raisins. Coffee. Burnt toast. This dressing could become a regular part of many menus.

Filed under: Japanese Food, Salads, Dressings, and Sauces, Vegetables   |  2 Comments
Tags: Aemono, Japanese Recipes, sesame dressing

Japanese Eggplant and Tomato Salad

12Aug08

This salad celebrates summer! With home-grown tomatoes and small eggplants it is the essence of the season. Grilling or steaming the eggplant makes it sweet and creamy. The light dressing is flavored with ginger and sesame and is perfect to bring out the sweetness of the vegetables.

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Tags: Aemono, Japanese Cooking, sesame dressing, Sonomono

Kimizu: Egg and Rice Vinegar Dressing

10May08

If you want a sauce to inspire your creativity in Japanese cooking, this should get you started. Though kimizu—egg and rice vinegar sauce—is not derived from European cooking, you could almost think of it a Japanese Hollandaise sauce. It compliments the same delicate flavors of steamed vegetables, shell-fish, white fish, or chicken breast. I’m betting it would even be good on poached eggs. There is no butter in kimizu, so its bright flavor adds sparkle to blanched asparagus, broccoli, or spinach. It’s a pretty yellow topping to accent pink shrimp. Or make a luxuious salad with lobster or crab and cucumbers; avocado slices would add even more richness. It is served chilled or at room temperature, so you can easily make it a day ahead of a fancy meal.

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Tags: Aemono, Japanese Cooking