Review by Tracey Zabar
Whip up this simple recipe to dress up all sorts of plain vegetables. Cook Japanese at Home is filled with easy directions for all sorts of sushi, hot pots and rāmen you can make yourself. Be brave and dive into this beautiful book and you too can make Japanese food at home.
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Green Beans And Carrot In White Sesame Dressing
ingen to ninjin no shiro-goma ae
Sesame dressing is a quick and easy way to transform otherwise rather ordinary vegetables.
serves 4
3 1/2 ounces fine green beans
1 medium-size carrot, pared
2 tablespoons light soy sauce
4 tablespoons White Sesame Dressing
salt
Trim the beans and cut into half lengths. Thinly slice the carrot into 1 1/4-inch long julienne strips. Parboil the vegetables separately in lightly salted water for 2 minutes each, then rinse in cold water and drain thoroughly. Pat them dry with paper towels.
Put the vegetables in a bowl, then add the soy sauce. Use your hands to mix and lightly squeeze them—this adds a subtle soy flavor to the vegetables.
Transfer the vegetable mix to another bowl, add the white sesame dressing, and toss. Divide the mixture into four equal portions, and serve in neat mounds in small individual dishes.
White sesame dressing
shiro-goma aegoromo
This tastes like delicately roasted peanuts. Do not be tempted to add too much sugar—it’s used to give a rounded taste, rather than to sweeten. Seemingly quite dry and coarse, once mixed it will be just right.
makes about 4 tablespoons
4 tablespoons toasted white sesame seeds
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
Put the toasted sesame seeds and sugar in a Japanese mortar, or a mortar and pestle, and grind to a coarse paste—leave some seeds still visible. Add the soy sauce, and mix well.
It’s best to prepare as needed, although it will keep for up to a month refrigerated in a zip-lock bag, with as much air pressed out as possible.
Excerpted from Cook Japanese at Home by Kimiko Barnes (Kyle). Copyright © 2017 Kimiko Barnes. Photographs Copyright © 2017 by Emma Lee.
