CONDIMENTS: Gomasio (Gomashio)

Gomasio (Gomashio)

1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons sesame seeds

1 Tablespoon sea salt

1. Place sesame seeds in a bowl and cover with water.  Pour off the seeds that float to the top into a fine mesh strainer.

2. Repeat, covering with water and pouring out the seeds suspended in the water, somewhat like panning for gold.  Continue adding water and pouring off seeds until just a few are left in the bowl.  Check these last seeds for stones or pieces of sand.  If there are more than two or three pieces of sand or stones, repeat this washing process again.

3. Drain the seeds in the strainer.

4. Heat a skillet and roast the salt, stirring, until the salt is dry and loose.  The color may darken slightly.

5. Place the roasted salt in the suribachi and grind.  Periodically, brush the salt out of the grooves of the suribachi with stiff bristled pastry brush.  Continue grinding until the salt feels powdery and not “grainy”.

6. Dry the sesame seeds before roasting.  Place in a heavy skillet or Dutch oven over a medium flame.  Stir continuously with a wooden spoon, drying until the seeds no longer stick to the wooden spoon.

7. Heat a stainless steel frying pan over a medium flame.

8.   Cover the bottom of the pan with a thin layer of sesame seeds.  If the seeds start popping out of the pan and all over the stove top, reduce the heat.

9. Place a lid on the pan.  Shake the seeds in the pan in a back and forward motion similar to popping corn.  The seeds are done when you can crush a few seeds easily between the thumb and fourth finger.

10.  Pour the finished seeds into the suribachi with the ground sea salt.  Continue roasting the seeds as described above until all the seeds are roasted

11.  Grind the seeds in the suribachi with the sea salt until about 2/3 of the sesame seeds are crushed.

12.  Serve a sprinkling on grains as a condiment.  Gomashio may be stored in an air-tight jar for about two weeks for maximum flavor and freshness.