Avocado Salad with Roasted Carrot Ginger Dressing - November 12, 2010

Every Japanese restaurant seems to have an annual subscription for the carrot-ginger dressing, in gallon-sized cans:  That is, every non-Japanese Japanese restaurant, an oxymoron as it may be.  My frequent dining companion was scandalized when I told him of my guilty penchant for the seaweed salad at a local eatery many years ago.  Staring at two avocados in the prime of ripeness - tomorrow they would go bad - in my hands, it was time that I vindicated the stigma associated with my name - the orange dressing eater.

Most recipes call for raw carrots; but having an overly active sensitivity for hidden bitterness in food, I was afraid that the use of a lot of raw carrots, accentuated by ginger, would magnify the subtle bitterness in the orange vegetable.  Therefore, I decided to roast my carrots in a pan with some sesame oil:  The roasting not only made the carrots sweeter, but the consequent charring also brought out the earthiness of the carrots.  If that is not enough to convert you over to this roasted carrot recipe, then the aroma of warmed sesame oil certainly would succeed.

Avocado Salad; Asparagus in Peanut Sauce;
Chard and Eel Soup with Rice Vermicelli

Ingredients

1 carrot - roughly chopped and roasted (pan or oven) with 1 tablespoon of sesame oil

1/2 onion - chopped
1 tablespoon of chopped fresh ginger
2 tablespoons of miso (do not use the red one)
2 tablespoons of vinegar (wine, rice wine, I don't really care; but no balsamic)
1/2 tablespoon of lemon juice
1/2 tablespoon of soy sauce (or you can just use 1 tablespoon of ponzu in lieu of soy sauce and lemon juice)
1 tablespoon of sesame oil
A few tablespoons of water

Preparation
Throw all into a food processor and run it until smooth. Mix with diced avocados and cucumbers.