Happy New Year my dear readers!! Hopefully this year will be an exciting one for everyone! It will certainly be one for me! I have been so eager to tell you about the food styling project I worked on for the last couples of months, until now, I can finally show you what I have done and what I have achieved so far!
This styling project was for an advertising campaign of a well known Japanese food company – Ajinomoto, who specialises in frozen ready made Japanese food products, seasoning and Asian cooking sauces. So far I was involved in two of their projects entailed recipes writing and food styling using their products, in this case a selection of their frozen gyoza. The first one was a video project in which I created a few recipes for their campaign – a salad dressing recipe (which features here) and a selection of dipping sauces for their gyoza. Then I was responsible to style the scenes and demonstrate the recipes in videos. There are three videos in total and two are now online on their facebook page! I am so excited to share these videos with you and I hope you like them too! Here are the links for the videos on my Vimeo page:
Video link: Miso Tahini Dressing
screen shot from the video
Video link: How to pan-fry perfect gyoza
screen shot from the video
The second project was for their advertising entries (leaflets) to an online gastronomy website (for restauranteur in Europe). My role was to design a mood-board for the leaflets, create 8 recipes, cook and style the dishes. It was an absolute fun project in which I worked with a team of talented people – professional photographers (from a Berlin based photo studio: Bert Spagermacher Fotografiert) for the photos of the final dishes, and a graphic designer who put together the final layout of the leaflets. As soon as I got hold onto the images, I will share them with you either on the blog here or on my facebook page! So stay tuned!
It has been a tremendous experience for me and I enjoyed every single minute of it! I was able to use my design knowledge as well as my experience of cooking and recipe writing in one single setting, it was such an exciting and valuable project for me! I am ever so grateful for having such an opportunity and to work with fun and like-minded people. The even better news is: there is another styling project coming up next month and I am so so excited about it! I am very much looking forward to telling you more about it, but for now, let me share our favourite Miso Tahini dressing (from the video) with you, the one and only tahini dressing you will ever need!
Notes:
1.This dressing is creamy, slightly nutty in flavour and extremely versatile, for example, I used honey in this recipe but you can use sugar, maple syrup or date syrup (if vegan) instead. Depends on the brand of Tahini, some are runnier than others, therefore, adjust the quantity of water accordingly. You can even replace water with orange juice! Just add liquid a little at a time to achieve the prefer consistence. This recipe is just an inspiration, play around with different options and create your own favourite version!
2. This salad is amazing with grilled meat or fish, if vegetarian, with roasted root vegetables such as pumpkin, sweet potato and carrot, or pan fried mushroom or tofu. Use any leafy green salad you like, add cooked grains such as brown rice, millet or quinoa for a quick and satisfaction lunch!
Miso Tahini Dressing
serves 2
Ingredients:
For the dressing: (please see head notes)
- 2+1/2 Tbsp. Tahini
- 2 tbsp. Tamari (or regular soy sauce)
- 2 tbsp. apple cider vinegar
- 1 tsp. white Miso paste
- 1 tsp. honey (or maple syrup or date syrup)
- 1-2 tbsp. water
- A squeeze lime juice
- 1 tsp. sesame oil (optional)
For the salad:
- 2 Pak choi, halved or quartered (depends on the size)
- a bag of Mixed leafy green salad (baby spinach, baby beet green, rockets etc.)
- handful of radish, sliced
- large handful of cherry tomato, halved
- 1 avocado, sliced
- 1 carrot, coarsely grated
- 1/2 cucumber, diced (optional)
- Toasted sesame seeds
Prepare the salad in a large serving bowl.
To make the dressing: combine all dressing ingredients into a small bowl and whisk until well combined and creamy. Adjust the water to achieve the desire consistency.
Serve salad with the dressing, for serving suggestion, please see head notes.
Check out Ajinomoto’s facebook page for their events and promotions.
ginger & chorizo 