Avocado with Mustard-Shoyu Dressing

I know it has been a great great while since I've put anything in my recipe blog. We had a hectic month traveling and having house guests. Now, I'm busy playing catch up and gettting settled once more in our daily routine. Lately, I've been experimenting with Japanese cooking. I just finished reading Japanese Women don't get Old or Fat last night and it has motivated me to pick up more of the traditional Japanese eating habits. I have bought several sushi cook books along with The Essentials of Japanese Cooking by Tokiko Suzuki. This is the book I got this recipe from.

Japanese cooking by Western standards may be considered bland or extremely mild. However, it is one of the healthiest forms of cooking in the world! Believe me, before coming here, I would have gagged by putting a sushi roll in my mouth. But, after watching how widely it was consumed here I decided to keep on trying and now I love raw salmon and tuna. In fact, I enjoy them more in raw form than I do in cooked form. Who would have thought of peer pressure being a good thing in this circumstance! This is an easy non-intimidating recipe to try on a week night. This recipe is called Abokado no karashi-joyu-ae in Japanese. This is a great alternative to guacamole. It's very mild and tends to bring out the sweetness in the Avacado. My son, who loves avacados, inhaled this dish!

Even though I couldn't find beni-tade at my local Seiyu (or atleast none of the clerks knew where to direct me) I substituted Daikon radish sprouts. Don't worry if you can't find them. For a substitute, try finely sliced radish or raddichio leaves. Or, just skip the shrubs altogether and solely use avacado! Make sure the avacados are ripe. Also, if you can't find shoyu, try using reduced sodium soy sauce or, "sushi & sashimi soy sauce" (I used Kikkoman brand). This can even be made a little ahead of time as the vinegar in the dressing and the alcochol keep the avocado from going brown.

1. 2 ripe avacados
2. 1/2 tablespoons mustard
3. 1 1/2 tablespoons shoyu
4. 1/2 tablespoon sake
5. 2-3 tablespoons beni-tade

Cut avacados lengthwise in half. Pull apart and remove stones. Peel the avocados and cut the flesh into 1" (3cm) cubes. Mix the dressing in a bowl. Add the avocado and mix roughly. Arrange in bowls and sprinkle with beni-tade.