White Sesame seeds - Sesamum indicum -synonym Sesamum Orientale
- White sesame seeds from India
- light nutty flavor for international cuisine
- salads, bread, bakery, stir fry
Culinary uses of White Sesame Seeds
White Sesame seeds is not a spice, but a nut or an oilseed. However, Japanese cuisine uses it for seasoning. Here sesame is roasted and mixed with other spices and used as a spice mixture for seasoning soups and pasta dishes. A well-known blend in Japan is gomashio, which is a mix of roasted sesame seeds and salt.
Another well known Japanese spice mix is Shichimi togarashi. This is a well-known seven spices blend from Japan, which they use as a universal spice. You can find Shichimi Togarashi ain our online spice store. For all details about the delicious mixture, click here: https://www.gewuerze-Orlandosidee®.de/contents/en-us/p348_shichimi-togarashi-japanische-gewuerzmischung.html.
Arabic cuisine uses sesame mostly as the paste Tahini. They make it from unroasted sesame seeds. They use this delicate Tahini to make many different dishes and pastes, like hummus, or shawarma.
Many desserts, such as the puff pastry, are sprinkled with sesame seeds. The well-known Halawa and Helva use Tahini as a base. Sesame contains unsaturated fatty acids, folic acid, and vitamin B.
Culinary tips
Sesame grains unfold their unique nutty aroma, during roasting, which gives bread and crackers a special touch. Try also to refine an apple pie with the ground roasted sesame seeds.
The seeds pair well with coriander, ginger, cardamom, and cloves.
Where does sesame come from? Since when is sesame known?
Sesame seeds belong to the sesame plant family Pedaliaceae and have their origins in East Africa or India. Sesame is one of the oldest cultivated plants in the world and has been used since the 3rd millennium BC. Even the Babylonians and Egyptians used it for seasoning bread.
How and where is sesame grown?
The sesame plant is a one-year-old herb with a stature height of up to 2 meters. It grows in a tropical to subtropical climate. Their cultivation is laborious. They have to clean the fields carefully of any weeds. In the beginning, as the plant slowly grows, it should not be suffocated by weeds. Furthermore, the capsules ripen unevenly and then scatter to the ground. As a result, the farmers lose about 75% of the harvest. Thus, small farmers reap only 300-500 kg per hectare, whereby the cultivation with highly develop varieties can already produce up to 2 tons of yield per hectare.
The harvest of the sesame plant takes place before the fruit capsules have reached their full maturity. After drying, the sesame is usually mechanically threshed.