Salads

Amazu (Sweet Vinegar Dressing - This is a simple sauce used for marinating vegetables and as a salad dressing. It is also the dressing used for Sunomono Salad.)
To make this sauce, combine 1/2 cup su, 1/4 tsp soy sauce, 2 tbsp sugar, to make enough for 2 servings.

Sunomono Salad - Amazu dressing; 1 cucumber; grated daikon*; 1/3 ounce dried wakame* seaweed; carrot for garnish; some salt
Thinly slice the cucumber and pour the salt over it and leave for 15 minutes. Gently rinse the salt off with water using a strainer. Put the wakame in hot water for 5 minutes to soften it, then place it in cold water until it is cold, then rinse very well with cold water. Grate some daikon and/or cut tiny slices of carrot for garnishes, then divide the ingredients into 2 bowls with the cucumber on the bottom and pour the dressing over it. Makes 2 servings. * optional

Variations of Sunomono Salad:
Kani Su (Crab) - Add 6 ounces of real crab or artificial crab.
Ebi Su (Shrimp) - Include cleaned, butterflied, blanched shrimp.
Tako Su (Octopus) - Include thinly sliced, blanched octopus for this dish.

Kani Salad - Kani Salad is a simple appetizer that's really easy to make and gives you a mouthful of slightly spicy crab with every bite. The recipe isn't exact, but use your taste to guide you: Shredded Imitation Crab, add small slices of cucumber, then mix with Kewpie Mayo, but go light to begin with! The flavor of crab is delicate so you don't want to over power it! Add a couple of drops of Srircha Hot Chili Sauce to start and adjust to taste. Mix in a little (start with one teaspoon) of Masago (little crunchy orange roe). Make sure the masago is fresh!

Ginger Salad Dressing - ½ knob of fresh ginger; ½ cup of salad oil; ½ cup of rice vinegar;
Salt, pepper and sugar to taste; 1 tsp of light soy sauce for color; optional: ½ of green onion minced OR 5 cloves of garlic minced. After you peel the ginger, mince or grate it fine. Mix together and adjust to suit your taste.

Sesame Seed Dressing - 3 tbsp white sesame seed (toasted and ground); 1 ½ tbsp of dashi;
1 tbsp sugar; 2 tbsp rice vinegar; ½ tbsp light soy sauce; ½ tbsp sesame seed oil
Mix together and mix well between servings.

Salmon Skin Salad - I'm looking for the dressing recipe for this wonderful salad!

One of my favorite salads is Ika Sansai (ee/kah san/seye) which is known as Squid Salad, Mountain Vegetables with Squid Salad, or Smoked Squid Salad. I have asked around about this and I have found that almost, if not all, sushi bars buy this frozen through a distributor in Japan. Although I know most of the ingredients in Ika Sansai, I don't know the measurements, and here's the real problem - some of the vegetables are not available outside of Japan.

*News Flash - here is the list of ingredients: squid, vinegar, kikurage mushroom, ginger, sugar,yamakurage (lettuce stem), bracken fern, sesame oil, soy sauce (soybean, water, wheat flour, salt) bamboo shoot, sesame seed, salt, bonito extract, kelp extract, red pepper, sweet rice wine, rice wine, high fructose corn syrup, xanthan gum, annatto.

If YOU can find a recipe that you want to share for this or something else, please email me and I'll be happy to put it up here and mention your name if you wish :-)