Japanese Food Lab |
Dress Up Your Dinner Series
Part 3: Savory Dressings

Yield: 1 cup

¼ cup red miso paste
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
¼ cup rice wine vinegar
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
Freshly-ground black pepper to taste

Whisk the miso paste, sugar and vinegar together well in a bowl until the sugar is dissolved.

Add the olive oil while whisking to emulsify. Season with black pepper.

Store refrigerated for up to 1 week.

Yield: 2 cups

¾ cup soy sauce
½ cup rice wine vinegar
½ tablespoon mirin (sweet Japanese cooking wine)
3-inch square piece kombu seaweed
¼ cup fresh lemon juice (reserve half of squeezed lemon rind)
½ cup peeled and finely grated daikon radish

In a small pot, combine the soy sauce, vinegar, mirin and kombu and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat and add the lemon juice.

Pour the soy sauce mixture into a heat-proof glass jar, and add the reserved lemon rind (in order to infuse the lemon oil from the peel into the dressing). Rest the jar in the refrigerator overnight.

When ready to serve, remove the kombu and lemon peel from the ponzu, and add the grated daikon. Gently stir to combine.

Store refrigerated for up to 3 days.

Yield: 2½ cups

½ cup white sesame seeds
6 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons sesame paste (tahini)
2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
½ cup rice wine vinegar
1 cup extra virgin olive oil

In a small skillet over medium-high heat, toast the sesame seeds until they start to pop and become shiny and fragrant. Remove immediately from the pan to a goma suri (sesame-grinding) bowl, food processor or coffee grinder to cool slightly. Grind the sesame seeds to a rough powder, and transfer to a clean bowl.

Add the soy sauce, sesame paste, salt, sugar, mustard and vinegar to the ground sesame seeds and stir to combine.

Slowly drizzle the olive oil into the sesame mixture, using a whisk to emulsify the oil into the rest of the ingredients.

Store refrigerated for up to 1 week.