The first course in a Japanese formal meal is often called the tsuki-dashi or the saki-zuke — either word referring to the small dish that comes out automatically when a guest sits down. It corresponds roughly with the idea of amuse bouche, or little mouth-pleasers, in Western cooking. Often these little pre-courses are simple dressed salads called aemono. Aemono are also widely made and eaten in home kitchens in Japan. The line between aemono and a more Western-style composed salad is often crossed and new dishes created.
Today's recipe is the most basic aemono, the shira-ae. This easy-to-make dressing may be used to enhance any seasonal vegetable or even some fish and meats. The general principle, however, is that each ingredient in the salad is carefully prepared — cooked, blanched or even seasoned — before being combined with the dressing. Even though there is a lot of dressing, it is delicately flavored and still gives each ingredient the opportunity to stand out and be recognized.
The main recipe calls for happo dashi to season several of the ingredients. Below is a recipe for this seasoned dashi that I use often while cooking.