A frequenter of Japanese Restaurants I’ve had salad on almost every visit. It is dressed with the same basic dressing in every Japanese restaurant and Hibachi place.
Oh by the way the “hibachi” there is not a hibachi at all. It is a teppan which is not much different than the flat top I used to use when working as a short order cook.
My wife and I used to cook our hamburgers on one on the front porch of our apartment when we were first married and living in Norwich CT. Sorry for the side trip…
My wife mentioned to me once or twice… hundred times that she liked that salad dressing and wondered if I could make it. Later my daughter said she liked it an my reverse engineering skills went to work.
Asking at a Japanese restaurant usually yielded a smile and a change of subject so that was right out and finding recipes on-line was not a thing yet. So over the years with many adjustments to the recipe I came up with something with very close to the flavor profile I was after. When my wife said she liked it better than what we found at the restaurant I was pleased.
Some of the ingredients if you cannot source them locally can be ordered from Amazon where I get most of my Asian ingredients along with buying spices from The Spice House in Chicago.
It consists of miso, soy sauce, mirin, sesame oil and peanut oil.
- 1 small white onion quartered
- 1 carrot cut into short pieces
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 2 tbs miso (red, white or whatever your preference is)
- 2 tbs soy sauce
- 3 tbs mirin
- 1 tbs sesame oil
- 3 tbs rice vinegar
- 1 Sechuan chili pepper (optional)
- ½ to 1 cup of peanut oil
- ½ to 1 cup peanut oil
- Place all the ingredients in a blender except for the peanut oil
- Turn the blender to its highest setting and allow ingredients to become a pulp
- With the blender running add the peanut oil in a drizzle until the dressing fully emulsifies.
- Optionally allow to sit in the refrigerator overnight to allow flavors to meld.