Fresh Vegetable Sticks with Spicy Miso Dip

Name: Fresh Vegetable Sticks with Spicy Miso Dip
Cuisine: Japanese
Ingredients: 1 small red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and cut into 8 strips; 1 small green bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and cut into 8 strips; 1 medium carrot, peeled, cut into ½-inch-square sticks, about 5 to 6 inches long; ⅓ cup minced parsley; ½ small cabbage, cut into quarters; 2 Kirby cucumbers (6 inches long), partially peeled, leaving some strips of skin along the cucumber, and cut into halves; 2 Kirby cucumbers (6 inches long), partially peeled, leaving some strips of skin along the cucumber, and cut into halves; 2 tablespoons mirin (sweet cooking wine); 2 tablespoons mirin (sweet cooking wine); ⅓ cup chopped walnuts or peanuts; ⅓ cup chopped walnuts or peanuts; ½ cup akamiso (brown miso); ½ cup akamiso (brown miso); 1 tablespoon sake (rice wine); 1 tablespoon sake (rice wine); 2 tablespoons minced garlic; 1 tablespoon toban jiang (Chinese chile bean sauce); 1 tablespoon toban jiang (Chinese chile bean sauce); 5 tablespoons sugar; 2 tablespoons minced ginger; 1 tablespoon sesame oil; 9 ounces pork belly meat or ground pork, fatty part; 9 ounces pork belly meat or ground pork, fatty part

Nama yasai to karamiso sosu

Preparation info

Makes
4
servings

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

The Sushi Experience

By Hiroko Shimbo

Published 2006

About

Cucumber, carrot, celery, cabbage, endive, scallion, bell peppers—they are all excellent to eat fresh and raw. In this dish, I serve the vegetable sticks with a miso-based dip that I always make rather spicy. Remember that miso is high in sodium, so do not eat too much of the sauce no matter how tasty it is.

Ingredients

Spicy Miso Dip

9 ounces pork belly meat or ground pork, fatty part
1 tablespoon sesame oil

Method

Chop the pork belly fine. Heat the sesame oil in a skillet until hot. Add the ginger, garlic, and toban jiang and stir with a wooden spatula until fragrant, about 20 seconds. Add the pork and cook until it is white, stirring continuously. Add the sugar and cook until it melts and caramelizes. Add the miso, sake, and mirin and cook until it is no longer watery. Add the nuts