Alessandra Zecchini: sesame

Showing posts with label sesame. Show all posts

Thursday, July 31, 2014

Konnyaku and vegetables with Japanese dressing

The other day I had a crazy craving for gomadofu, the 'tofu' made with sesame seeds. But I couldn't find it anywhere in Auckland! If anyone can help (or tell me how to make it at home!) please do!

Anyway, I ended up buying konnyaku, a Japanese starchy-jelly food made from Konjak yam plant.

It has nothing to do with gomadofu but perhaps the colour (a little) and to satisfy my goma (sesame) craving I thought of serving it with a sesame dressing.

You don't need to do anything with the konnyaku except taking it out of the packet and slice it! For the veggies i steamed some cauliflowers florets and carrots (separately) and cooked some spinach. The spinach were rolled in a nori seaweed sheet (like a sushi roll, but with spinach instead of rice). For the dressing, usually I make this miso dressing, but this time I tried to make Nami's miso dressing, from Just One Cookbook, mostly because I have never tried to put rice vinegar in my dressing and I wanted to have a go! Nami, the only thing that I didn't put in here is the miring (didn't have any at home!) and my sesame seeds were already ground. But yes, it was delicious! Thank you!

Now, do you know how to make gomadofu? :-)

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Japanese Vegetables with Miso and Sesame Dressing

Japanese Vegetable Market, Kyoto. Photo by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Japanese Vegetables with Miso and Sesame Dressing

Ingredients:
For the dressing:
2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
1 tablespoon miso paste
A little dashi (vegetable or kombu seaweed stock).

For the vegetables:
1) Choose one vegetable among the ‘white Group’:
Potato, Daikon (available in Asian stores), cauliflower…
2) One vegetable among the ‘orange/yellow group’:
Carrot, pumpkin, kumara…
3) One vegetable among the ‘green group’:
Broccoli, spinach, snow peas, asparagus…
4) Cherry tomatoes to decorate (optional)

To make the dressing grind the toasted sesame seeds with mortar and pestle, then add the miso paste and mix. Slowly add enough dashi (stock, hot or cold) to make a smooth and runny paste. Set aside.

Choose your vegetables, one from each colour group (considering that Japanese food must also be beautiful to look at), and cut into pretty slices. Boil the potatoes, kumara and daikon, but just steam or blanch all other vegetables, as they still need to be crunchy and colourful.

Arrange the vegetables in individual bowls as nicely as you can (for example, one small potato, two carrot slices, and 3 snow peas) and drizzle over the dressing. Decorate with a cherry tomato and serve, cold or at room temperature.

Suggestions

It is important to boil or steam the vegetables separately, or they will all taste the same. The leftover dressing can be stored in the fridge for a few days.

Make this salad into a main by adding a boiled egg or a square of Japanese soft tofu (the type that can be eaten row).

Monday, December 5, 2011

No knead flat bread with seeds (sesame and cumin)

My motto is "when in doubt bake some bread!" Not cake but bread, my kids like bread over cakes, which is good, since I like it too! This is easy, a mixture between flat bread and focaccia really: place 300 ml warm water in a large mixing bowl, add 2 tsp active yeast granules and 1/4 tsp raw sugar. Wait 5 minutes then add 400 g high grade flour and 1 tbsp wheat gluten flour, plus a good pinch of salt. Mix with one hand (sticky!), then dust with four, cover with cling film and let it rise for 2 hours. After 2 hours flour your hands and then pick up the dough and divide into two pieces which you will pull to make two long loaves (like in the picture).

Place the loaves on a long baking tray (I have a 90 cm oven) or make 4 smaller loaves if you have a regular oven. brush with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and then with seeds. I used sesame seeds on one loaf and cumin seeds on the other one. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 200° C for approximately 20-25 minutes, or until you can see that the bread is baked on top and on the bottom (lift to check). Eaten warm is fantastic, but it keeps well for a couple of days, or at least, it would, but we tend to eat it pretty quickly! The kids prefer the cumin seeds, and so do I actually, but it is nice to have the sesame seeds too, once the cumin seeds is all gone!