Green beans with Japanese sesame dressing

I demonstrated how to cook Japanese green beans with sesame dressing (Ingen no Gomaae) for Nikkei Concern (http://www.nikkeiconcerns.org/seattlekeiro.html) Health fair other day.

I decided to make two types of sesame dressings.  During the process of creating recipes,

I looked up my Japanese recipe books.  My all cookbooks of Japanese basic home cooking include a recipe of green beans and sesame dressing or some sort of sesame dressing. I cook spinach with sweet soy sesame dressing #1 often at home.  I made green beans with sweet and sour sesame dressing #2 at my party and it was popular that several guests asked me about the dressing.

The organizer of the Health fair asked me not to use sugar in the recipe because many old attendants of the health fair have diabetes.  I usually use sugar to make the both dressing. I researched sugar substitutes and all have some problem. (Checkout: http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/are-artificial-sweeteners-a-healthy-substitute-for-sugar-201112304047) I decided to use honey which is natural although the honey contains sugar and have unique flavor. 

I conducted some test making sesame dressing. Honey is sweeter than sugar.  I found the amount of honey which works for the sesame dressing after several trials.

Also to keep beans nice green after boiling, there are two way to parboil them. One way is to cook beans in salted water. Others salt beans before parboiling. The first way is commonly people use. So I decided to use the second method. But if your doctor told you not eat salt much, you can eliminate salt when you boil the beans.  Here is the recipe which I made for the health fair.

Green beans with sesame seeds honey dressings

By FumikoB

 

Ingredients for 4 servings:

8 ounces Green beans (About 32 medium size beans)

Water for boiling

½  teaspoon sea salt

½  teaspoon soy sauce

Dressing 1 ( Goma Ae) 6 Tablespoons Black sesame seeds 2 Tablespoon Soy sauce 4 teaspoons honey * 2 Tablespoon Dashi or water *If using sugar, 2 Tablespoon sugar in place of honey.

Dressing2  (Goma yogoshi) 6 Tablespoons white sesame seeds 1 Tablespoons honey* 2 Tablespoons rice vinegar 2 Tablespoon soy sauce 1 Tablespoon Dashi or water *If using sugar, 1 and 1/2 Tablespoons sugar in place of honey.

Cooking instructions for green beans

1.       Wash green beans and cut into pieces 1 ½ inches long.

2.       Sprinkle sea salt on the green beans and mix so beans are coated with salt.

3.       Boil water, then add beans, boil for 5 minutes. (If you like tender beans, cook longer.)  

4.       Strain the beans using a colander, and the place in bowl. 

5.        Add soy sauce on the hot beans and mix.

6.       Cool the beans.

7.       Mix the sesame dressing with the beans.

8.       Plate the sesame marinated beans and serve at room temperature.

Making Sesame Dressing

1.       Roast sesame seeds in a frying pan over medium heat until nice aroma comes out.

2.       Grind sesame seeds in a Japanese mortar with a wooden pestle.

3.       Mix the rest of the ingredients for dressing in another bowl with the ground sesame seeds.

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The arm of a Tempura cook

This photo of my arm shows oil spattered burn spots. Hajime at Mashiko joked about an earlier time in his career, when his arm had burned marks which were cause from making Tempura. John said he had a similar experience and made his arm protection by cutting his long sock.
I often make Tempura at home in a regular frying pan, and I hardly ever burn my arm. The pan used at home is shallow, where as at Mashiko, I use a deep fryer. I dropped vegetables with Tempura batter a bit too high above the oil in the fryer from my nervous unsteady hand. This caused the oil to splash burn spots on my arm.
My husband told me that he had seen people’s arms like mine. He thought that the people were drug addicts, as they had burn marks on their arm similar to the ones on my arm. He was surprised to learn that maybe those people where really cooks working at a deep fryer instead of drug addicts like he thought.
I didn’t know that people with drug addiction problem had skin problems. I found some image of arms badly spotted by drug addiction. Hopefully soon I am able to fry Tempura without splashing oil. I should wear long sleeve shirts or cover my arm.
When you see someone with small blisters on one of his/her arms, it may be caused from splash from the deep fryer not from drug addiction.
<----The photo shows my potential arm protection. Left: Japanese farmer's arm cover, Right: Leg warmer