Spinach Gomaae

Make spinach interesting by adding a bit of Japanese flavour to it. This recipe is from Hana! http://www.hanaetsuko.com.

The first step is to buy and cook lots and lots of spinach. Spinach wilts a lot so I recommend buying twice (or triple) the amount that you would think you need.

I placed the spinach in a bit of boiling water and turned it a couple of times to get it cooked evenly. While the spinach is wilting, place 4 Tbsp of sesame seeds into a frying pan to toast. Make sure to keep an eye on the sesame seeds because the moment you turn around it can burn!! I keep the pan on low to medium heat.

You know when the sesame seeds are ready when they emit a wonderful aromatic smell and have a golden brown colour!

Place the toasted sesame seeds in a grinder or a mortar and macerate into a fine powder.

In the meantime, the spinach should have finished cooking. Drain and cool the spinach. At this point you may want to give the spinach a bit of a chop to get them in smaller bite size pieces.

There are a lot of different variations to the sesame dressing. You can make it saltier or sweeter depending on your taste. I like it in between. Into the sesame seeds, add about 1.5 Tbsp of Shoyu or soy sauce, 2 Tbsp of honey, a dash of sesame oil and give it a stir. Taste to see if you need the sauce to be sweeter or saltier.