Japanese Cooking - Contemporary & Traditional (18 page)

Here is a simple dressing that contains very little fat per serving. It is tasty over regular greens, shredded cabbage (a common component of Japanese salads), reconstituted wakame, or other delicate sea vegetables. At our restaurant, Now and Zen, we serve this over our popular “Wakame Salad,” which consists of romaine lettuce topped with delicate wakame, fresh corn, tomatoes, red onions, and cucumbers.

Wakame salads started to appear on the Japanese culinary scene in the ’80s as the Japanese began to adopt Western foods. They added soy sauce to a basic vinaigrette and made “Wa-Fu Dressing.” Then they poured it on top of tender wakame and greens, and voilà, a new culinary tradition was established. Using the most tender wakame you can find for this dish is of paramount importance. Often, you will find chopped, dried wakame marketed as “cut wakame” in Japanese food stores. Obviously tough-looking, stringy wakame in long strands will not do the job when it comes to eating it raw and fresh.

Here is a mayonnaise-based dressing that suits any type of greens. Feel free to use full-fat, low-fat, tofu-based, or non-fat mayo in making this. It is especially suitable for a Japanese-style cole slaw.

The type of miso you use will determine exactly how much is added to this tasty dressing. A milder white or koji miso is preferable in this dressing.

Here is an interesting salad that my mother taught me.

An all-time favorite of my little daughters! They will crunch away on slice after slice of this refreshing and simple salad. It is especially good as a condiment to accompany fried dishes. Most important for the salad is the type of cucumber used. Only Japanese cucumbers or the long, thin European variety are recommended, since they are not waxed nor do they have bitter skins.