Classic Louis Salad Dressing

For a classic Seafood Louis Salad, serve this dressing with a plateful of shredded lettuce, thinly sliced (diagonally) celery, wedged tomatoes, halved hard-boiled eggs, pitted American olives, and cold shrimp and/or crab meat.

Make a lot of the dressing, more than you need. If you have any left-over, use it another time. It's great as a tartar sauce substitute. This recipe makes about ¾ pint.

Ingredients 

• MAYONNAISE, 2 cups
• CHILI SAUCE, ½ cup
• COCKTAIL SAUCE, ½ cup
• WORCESTERSHIRE SAUCE, 1½ teaspoons
• GREEN ONION, 2 tablespoons, minced or grated
• FLAT LEAF PARSLEY, 2 tablespoons, finely chopped
• PREPARED HORSERADISH, 1½ teaspoons

Directions 

1. Blend everything together until smooth and well-combined.
2. Refrigerate a few hours until well-chilled.

Miso Sauce

Made from fermented soybean paste, miso is an essential ingredient in Japanese cuisine and is especially good as a soup or with seafood (particularly salmon or black cod, aka “sablefish” or “butterfish”).

Here’s a simple miso sauce that I use that can be used as a marinade and/or topping on fish.

Ingredients

• WHITE MISO, 1 cup
• SUGAR, ¼ cup (Or, substitute light-brown sugar or honey)
• SAKE (Japanese rice wine), ¼ cup
• MIRIN (sweet Japanese rice wine), ¼ cup

Combine the ingredients (adjust the sweetness to your taste) and let stand for at least five minutes to allow the flavors to meld. It’s okay to double the ingredients and save the excess in a glass bottle/jar in the fridge. It’ll keep for some time.

I rub it on the fish, letting it marinate for a few minutes, then either broil or pan fry the fish, reserving some of the sauce to spread on the cooked fish when it’s served.

To transform it into a salad dressing, whisk in some neutral-flavor vegetable oil (Canola is good, peanut oil is best).

Teriyaki Sauce

Teriyaki sauce is an essential flavoring ingredient in many Asian dishes. It’s so easy to make if the ingredients are available in your local grocery store.

To me, the commercially prepared product is either too salty or too strongly flavored. We use Aloha Shoyu for ours.

Ingredients: 1 Pint

• SOY SAUCE, 2 cups
• GINGER, 2 quarter-inch thick wheels, smashed (not necessary to peel)
• GARLIC, ½ clove, smashed (not necessary to peel)
• SUGAR, ¾ cup
• AJINOMOTO (MSG), ¼ teaspoon

Combine all ingredients in a jar and shake or stir vigorously until the sugar is completely dissolved. You can add more sugar to increase sweetness if desired.

This recipe makes one pint (two cups), which can be stored indefinitely in the refrigerator. It can easily be doubled to make a quart, or quadrupled to make a half-gallon.

Ingredients: 1 Quart

• SOY SAUCE, 1 quart
• GINGER, ½ large root, smashed (not necessary to peel)
• GARLIC, 1 small clove, smashed (not necessary to peel)
• SUGAR, 1½ cups
• AJINOMOTO (MSG), ½ teaspoon

Ingredients: Half Gallon 

• SOY SAUCE, ½ gallon
• GINGER, 1 large root, smashed (not necessary to peel)
• GARLIC, 1 large clove, smashed (not necessary to peel)
• SUGAR, 3 cups
• AJINOMOTO (MSG), 1 teaspoon