Bilingual lifestyle musings of a soloist
Sesame paste is a delicious and simple condiment that makes any recipe taste so much better.
Sesame paste is especially important in Chinese cuisine, but common in Japanese cuisine as well. I have a bad habit of adding it to nearly everything because I love that extra nutty, creamy flavour.
Unfortunately, in Japan, sesame paste can only be found in import stores which makes it
a) Hard to come by
b) Expensive
Let’s not forget the fact that the processed food lined up on our supermarket shelves are all full of additives. Even if I had the money, seeing all the unfamiliar ‘ingredients’ listed is enough to put me off buying it.
Thankfully for us, sesame is really easy to get here in Japan. This is because sesame is common in Japanese cuisine, including goma-zoe, furikake, the sauce for suki-yaki , and more. Thankfully for us, sesame is really easy to get here in Japan. This is because sesame is common in Japanese cuisine, including goma-zoe, furikake, the sauce for suki-yaki , and more.
At a Japanese supermarket, you will most likely find two kinds of sesame seeds:
いりごま (irigoma): whole, roasted sesame seeds.
すりごま (surigoma): crushed, roasted sesame seeds.
In order to make our own home made sesame paste, look for white irigoma. I personally like to roast the seeds again before processing. This brings out that aroma and oil, which improves the flavour and helps the sesame blend better. If you use surigoma you won’t be able to roast it as it will burn. Also, irigoma tends to be slightly cheaper, so that’s killing to birds with one stone.
Now,making our own homemade sesame paste is actually very simple.
RECIPE
Ingredients:
3 cups sesame seeds
1/2 teaspoon salt
Steps
1) Toast the seeds on low heat until golden
2) Blend the seeds in a food processor until coarse like sand
3) Add salt to liking
4) Continue blending until it becomes smooth like a paste.
And you are done!
Here I used roughly 1 cup of sesame seeds to 1/4 teaspoon of salt, which gave me 1/3 cups of sesame paste.
There isn’t really anywhere you could go wrong, but here are some tips.
1) Toast the seeds on low heat as to no burn them. You will know when the seeds are done when they are slightly golden in colour and you can smell the fragrance of sesame seeds
2) Be paitent while blending the seeds! You will get there eventually. The time it takes depends on your food processor. Because I used a mini grinder instead of a processor, it took me roughly 20 minutes.
Easy isn’t it?
Price range:
Sesame ( ￥ 130) + salt = Roughly ￥ 130
It’s a very affordable and healthier alternative to store bought sesame paste!
Store your jar of sesame paste in the refrigerator. Since there are no preservatives added, the oil will go rancid if you leave it outside.
The sesame paste lasts from 1~2 weeks, but honestly, I use it in so many recipes like my Sesame Miso Salad Bowl, or Edamame Hummus. So you definitely don’t need to worry about it going off because it’ll be gone before you realise!