Goma Ae Japanese Greens Recipes

Steps:

• Get a bowl of iced water ready. Bring a pan of salted water to the boil, add the green beans and cook for 2-3 mins until bright green but still crunchy. Use a slotted spoon to remove the beans and plunge them into the ice water. Add the spinach to the boiling water and cook for 20-30 secs, then remove and add to the ice water. Once cool, drain the greens in a sieve over the bowl and set aside for 5 mins so that all the water drips out of them.
• Make the dressing by grinding the sesame seeds with a pestle and mortar or spice grinder, then mix in the other ingredients. Toss the greens in the dressing, top with the gomashio, if using, and serve.

Steps:

• For the dressing, dry roast sesame seeds in a frying pan for about a couple of minutes, gently jiggling the pan. Careful not to burn them.
• With a pestle and a mortar, partially grind the sesame seeds.
• In a large bowl, mix together ground sesame seeds, soy sauce, sugar, and a pinch of salt.
• Cut the green beans if they are too long. Cook the green beans by boiling until desired tenderness is reached. Drain and briefly run them under running water so that the beans stay green.
• While the green beans still warm, toss them in the sesame dressing.
• The dressing looks more like a paste than dressing but that's exactly how you want it to be, otherwise when mixed with the green beans, the dressing gets too runny and the green beans won't taste as nice.

Steps:

• Clean and blanch the spinach. To do this drop into boiling water and remove immediately.
• Rinse in very cold water. Drain well. You may want to gently squeeze out excess.
• Heat a skillet very hot. Add the seeds and toat a couple minutes until brown. Then put them in a blender or spice grinder and grind.
• Add the remaining ingredients to blender and process into thin paste. Then add to spinach and stir well.
• Note If using add the bonito flakes to the top as garnish right before serving.
• 2-4 [we are big Spinach eaters -- servings depend on how you serve it.].