Spinach With Roasted Sesame Seed Dressing Recipes

SPINACH WITH SESAME DRESSING

Steps:

• In a large pot of boiling salted water blanch spinach for 1 to 2 minutes and refresh. Squeeze water out firmly but do not wring. Lightly toss spinach to separate stems and leaves, and place in a bowl.
• In a hot dry skillet, toast sesame seeds until they begin to pop. Reserve a teaspoon of toasted seeds for garnish. Transfer the rest of the seeds to a spice grinder or mortar and pestle. Grind until smooth. Pour into a bowl, if necessary, and add sugar, soy sauce and dashi. Mix well and pour over spinach. Toss to coat. Garnish with reserved seeds.

SPINACH SALAD WITH SESAME DRESSING

Steps:

• For the salad, just toss the ingredients in a salad bowl and set aside to prepare the dressing.
• To make the dressing, cook the sesame seeds and garlic in the oil in a small skillet for 1 minute (not too hot or garlic will pop and splatter).
• Remove from heat and stir in rest of the ingredients.
• Cool slightly and pour over the salad.
• Toss gently and serve.

SPINACH WITH SESAME SEED DRESSING #1 (HORENSO NO GOMA AE)

Steps:

• Remove the stems before washing the spinach leaves. Bring a large pot of saslted water to a rolling boil and cook the spinach until it barely wilts. Drain and refresh the spinach under cold running water. Squeeze out excess moisture before chopping the spinach coarsely.
• Dry roast the sesame seeds in a skillet over medium-high heat and transfer them to a suribachi (Japanese grinding mortar) while still warm. Crush the sesame seeds well before adding the sugar. Continue to grind the sesame and sugar untilthe misture is quite pasty, then add the soy sauce and blend well. You can also do this in a blender or food processor, but will have to double or tripe the quantities to get the volume necessary to engage the blades of your machine; store excess in a tightly sealed jar in the refrigerator.
• Toss the chopped spinach in the dressing and serve chilled or at room temperature.

SPINACH WITH SESAME SEED DRESSING #2 (HORENSO NO GOMA AE)

Steps:

• Heat sesame seeds in a small skillet over medium-high heat, stirring or shaking pan constantly, until seeds are light brown and first popping sound occurs, about 2 minutes.
• Reserve 1 teaspoons (5 ml.) of the toasted sesame seeds. Grind remaining seeds in a mortar and pestle or grinder until smooth. Combine ground seeds, sugar, soy sauce, and dashi in a small bowl to make dressing. Set aside.
• Heat 1 quart (1 liter) water and the salt to boiling in a 2-quart saucepan; add spinach. Reduce heat to medium; simmer until spinach is tender, 2 to 3 minutes. Drain spinach. Rinse undeer cold running water; drain. Squeeze spinach to remove excess moisture. Cut into 1-inch pieces.
• Combine spinach and dressing in a medium bowl and toss lightly until thoroughly mixed. Divide evenly into 4 small bowls and garnish with reserved sesame seeds.