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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Brown Rice Sushi rolls

I was invited to a birthday party for my vegetarian friend. I told that I would bring Sushi rolls.
I was going to make California rolls and Vegetarian rolls filled with teriyaki marinated Tofu, Avocado and Cucumber. I decided to add another Sushi rolls even healthier than others from something found in my kitchen cabinets.
I cooked some Nishiki Brown rice and made Sushi rice as the same way as medium grain white rice. The cooked brown rice was not as sticky as white Calrose rice. Sushi rolls using Brown rice have to be wrapped to hold content together. Nori seems not to taste good with brown rice as white rice. I decided to use Soy wrappers instead of Nori.
When I tasted brown Sushi rice, it seems to be good with beans. I found canned black beans and washed, drained and mixed some with Sushi rice. How about fillings? I was going to use cheddar cheese. I added canned Mexican chilies and avocado. This Sushi transformed like American-Mexican wrapped sandwich and tasted like one.
I created several brown Sushi rolls with various color soy wrappers and brought to the party. The brown rice Sushi roll was popular and several guests asked what I used to wrap and what kinds of fillings I used for. Especially a lady who was born in India told me she doesn’t like Sushi used Nori but she loved brown rice Sushi rolls.
I forgot taking photos of the Sushi and there are no pictures for this Sushi. I plan to test to make them look and taste better next time and take photos to add to this blog.