Sesame, suribachi, surikogi, 'sparagus

Just a quick post with a recipe that will take as long to make as it does to read and is packed with flavour... what better for dreary February?

We have been eating a ton of Japanese food over the past few weeks, trying to mix up our repertoire, particularly when it comes to vegetable side dishes. A new favourite to liven up anything green is this creamy sesame dressing. It takes literally minutes to whip up and uses one of our favourite pieces of kitchen gear, the suribach and surikogi

We have tasted the dressing before so knew what we were aiming at and did some quick googling for a recipe. To our bemusement, all bar none included mayonnaise. There was one that seemed to omit any mayo but then added a note at the bottom saying they had made it again, added some in and it tasted much better with it. The ubiquitous kewpie mayonnaise is delicious but this sounded pretty heathen. Given the strength of opinion in favour, we went with it

The recipe we followed was this one. Although this one also looks to do the business. The ingredients are mostly store cupboard and the method is literally toast, grind and mix. 

3 Tbsp. roasted white sesame seeds 
2 Tbsp. Japanese mayonaise 
2 Tbsp. rice vinegar 
1½ Tbsp. soy sauce 
1 tsp. sugar
½ tsp. mirin
½ tsp. sesame oil

    Other recipes suggest you can add a little garlic powder, mustard powder or worcestershire sauce (more prevalent in Japanese cookery than you might think). As with pretty much any sauce, the flavouring and texture should be done to taste. We went for a less sweet more crunchy version and, because we are lazy and it was only a Tuesday night, mixed and served it all in the mortar and pestle. 

    We steamed some asparagus and mixed it through the dressing. It would work equally well with broccoli, green beans, green salad... anything green that needs a bit of pepping up. Our mistake was in the quantities. We went big on the sesame dressing when really you probably only need a tablespoon or two. Turns out it keeps in the fridge so best to put some aside to avoid sesame overload. Also, there was no kewpie so we used good old Hellmanns - not the same overtly eggy flavour but still pretty good. 

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