Ginger dressings can be used to spice up Japanese salads.
Ginger, known in Japan as "shago," is one of the country's oldest seasonings, used for medicinal and culinary purposes. In Japanese restaurants, ginger dressings often top salads, coleslaws and meats, and sometimes they can accompany "bento" boxes--a rectangular wooden box used to serve a multi-course meal. Restaurants can create many versions of the sauce, from the classic carrot-ginger to the bolder tangy ginger dressings.
Carrot Ginger Dressing
Carrot and ginger are common salad dressing components available in many Japanese restaurants, from low- to high-end, according to "The Slow Food Guide to Chicago: Restaurants, Markets, Bars" by Kelly Gibson, Portia Belloc Lowndes and Amy Cook. To make the dressing, carrot juice is boiled until it reduces down to 1/3 of its original volume---which helps to concentrate the flavor. After the juice is cooled, it is blended with peeled and sliced ginger, freshly squeezed lime juice, soy sauce and chopped carrots until smooth. While the machine continues to run, a continuous stream of peanut oil is added, which helps to bind together all the ingredients.
Light Soy Ginger Dressing
In the coleslaws served in Japanese restaurants, soy and ginger dressings are often used instead of mayonnaise, which is popular in the American version. Finely-grated ginger and ginger juice are whisked together with light Japanese soy sauce, Japanese rice wine vinegar, sake, Japanese mustard, sesame oil and caster sugar, until completely combined. The dressing is usually poured over the finely-chopped vegetables and tossed until everything is coated.
Citrus Ginger Dressing
One bold and refreshing dressing used to spice up a plate of mixed greens is the citrus ginger dressing, also called the "Bamboo Ginger Dressing" after the restaurant Bamboo 25 in New York. The restaurant's recipe mixes fresh peeled and sliced ginger, with myriad chopped veggies and fruits, including celery sticks, carrots, apples, oranges, lemon, onion and pineapple. They are added to a blender with vegetable oil, white wine vinegar and sugar, and pureed until smooth.
Tangy Ginger Dressing
Restaurants in Japan use a spicy ginger dressing to accentuate a sea bream salad called "tennen dai." The bold dressing, as featured in the book "Shunju: New Japanese Cuisine" by Takashi Sugimoto, Marcia Iwatate and Masano Kawana, combines minced ginger with garlic and "naga negi," a type of spring onion. Once those finely-chopped ingredients are tossed together, they are added to a bowl, and whisked together with "kochujang" (Korean red chili paste), vegetable oil, salt and "ponza" sauce (a lemon, sake and soy sauce mixture). The dressing is drizzled over the salad right before it is served.
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