Editor’s note: The theme of Gohan Lab is to help people make simple, tasty “gohan” (meals).

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Dressing, the partner to salads, caps our series that took a close look at the flavors of popular dishes.

To produce a mild dressing that still has some bite, we'll add to the basic combination of one part vinegar to two to three parts oil.

Unlike commercially available dressings, we'll go easy on the salt and aim for a dressing that highlights the main ingredients. You always can add more salt later.

We recommend using any colorful seasonal fruits and vegetables you have left in the kitchen. In April, the “bankan” citruses are a good choice. Though our recipe uses “hassaku” orange, “amanatsu” or “buntan” will also create a sweet and refreshing flavor simply by mixing in the citruses' crushed fruity flesh.

A key is to add a thin slice of garlic. If you compare the dressing with and without the garlic, you'll see how it spices up the overall flavor.

We chose to pour the featured dressing on scallops to prepare a weekend treat. Since the dressing doesn't dribble thanks to the flesh of the fruit in it, it's easy to eat and makes your salad look better.

The recipe's arranged version is for an orange-colored carrot dressing that sets off the green color of the lettuce to light up the dinner table.

ADDING SOY SAUCE

Dressing with bankan citruses can be kept in the fridge for about a week if stored in a clean jar. Besides using it on scallops, it also goes well with boiled shrimp, grilled white fish and lettuce-based salad with ham or steamed chicken known as “salad chicken.”

When serving with red-meat fish such as “katsuo no tataki” (fresh skipjack tuna with a seared surface) and thin slices of Japanese amberjack "buri" sashimi, add 1/2 tsp soy sauce to the same dressing and adjust the flavor to taste. This will add strength to the dressing that equals that of the fish.

In addition to carrots, vegetables such as beet root, green peas, pumpkin and spinach are good choices to use in the salad. You can also add some olive oil.

BASIC COOKING METHOD

(Supervised by Kuniaki Arima in the cooking aspect and Shinichi Ishikawa in the cookery science aspect)

* Ingredients (Serves 2)

Amount easy to make: 50 ml vinegar (wine vinegar), 100 ml oil (unroasted sesame oil and others), 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 hassaku orange, 1 thin slice garlic, 3 fresh scallops, some herbs (dill, chervil and others)

About 135 kcal and 0.7 grams salt per portion

1. Peel hassaku and remove kernels (PHOTO A). Slice garlic finely. Place them in bowl, add salt, vinegar and oil and mix thoroughly, while separating pulp using whisk (blender if available, if not, a fork) (PHOTO B).

2. Briefly parboil scallops. Bring water to a boil in pot, have cold water ready in bowl. Drop scallops in boiling water. Since surface will turn white immediately, immerse in cold water (PHOTO C). When cooled, remove and pat dry.

3. Remove hard part of scallop on the edge and slice horizontally in three pieces. Cut hard part into two or three pieces, serve on plate together and sprinkle with a bit of salt.

4. Pour desired amount of dressing over scallop. Tear herbs with hands and sprinkle on top.

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Kuniaki Arima is the owner-chef of Passo a Passo, an Italian restaurant in Tokyo’s Fukagawa.

Shinichi Ishikawa is a professor at Miyagi University specializing in molecular cooking science.

ARRANGED VERSION

Salad with carrot dressing

Adding a boiled carrot turns the dressing orange. If you use apple vinegar, it will give the dressing a fruity aroma. Peel 50 grams of carrot, cut into round slices 1 cm thick and boil until soft.

Instead, you could sprinkle a bit of water on the carrot slices and microwave for about 1 minute and 30 seconds.

Then add carrot, 50 ml apple vinegar, 100 ml oil and 1/4 tsp salt in a blender and mix.

On a plate, serve half a lettuce head, 2 slices uncured ham and if it is not too much trouble, some chopped up boiled egg and pour the carrot dressing on top.

COOKERY SCIENCE

When water and oil, liquids that are normally unmixable, are mixed thoroughly, they blend together. This process is called emulsification, and in a dressing, the protein and fat components in the ingredients play the role of an emulsifier that blends water and oil.

Since dressings in general adopt the “water-in-oil” emulsion where small water particles are dispersed in oil, they taste oily in the mouth.

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From The Asahi Shimbun’s Gohan Lab column