Pan-Indian · Sesame oil
Sesame-Ginger Dressing
A pantry dressing — cold-pressed sesame oil, ginger, lime, jaggery. Five ingredients, fifteen seconds.
Ingredients
- 4 tbsp Bharat sesame oil
- 1 tbsp ginger
- 2 tbsp lime juice
- 1 tsp jaggery
- 1 tbsp tamari or light soy
- salt
- 1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds · to finish
A dressing that earns its oil
A dressing is the easiest place to taste the oil it is built on. There is nothing to hide behind — no heat to mellow it, no spice to crowd it. The cold-pressed sesame oil in this is the entire reason the dressing works. The other ingredients are punctuation.
Method
- Combine the Bharat sesame oil, grated ginger, lime juice, jaggery, tamari, and salt in a small bowl.
- Whisk with a fork for fifteen seconds. The jaggery will mostly dissolve. A few flecks are fine.
- Taste. Adjust salt or lime.
- Finish with toasted sesame seeds.
Notes from the kitchen
- Use it on a kachumber of cucumber and red onion, on a kale-and-pomegranate salad, on cold soba, or as a finishing spoon over steamed greens.
- Stored in a glass jar in the fridge, it keeps for four days. The ginger sharpens. Shake before pouring.
- Substitute lime with a yuzu or calamansi if you have it. The point is the acid, not the variety.
The oil for this dish
Bharat Sesame Oil →
Til oil, drawn from the first winter crop. The oldest pressed oil on the subcontinent.
