Author: story of a kitchen (altered from many sources)
Recipe type: vegetable
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 1-2
This makes one very large serving, two if a side dish.
Ingredients
1 bunch spinach (1 bunch is about 8 ounces or 227 g) *
large pinch kosher salt
3 tablespoons white sesame seeds, raw **
1½ tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 teaspoon sake
1 teaspoon mirin
1 teaspoon dashi (optional)
Instructions
Put a pot of water to boil on the stove and add salt.
Prepare a large bowl of ice water and set aside.
Meanwhile, toast sesame seeds. When you smell the toastiness, take off the heat.
Using a mortar and pestle, grind the seeds, leaving some whole. If you don't have a mortar and pestle, use a dry Vitamix mixer to quickly whiz for a coarse grind. Dump into medium mixing bowl.
To this bowl, add soy sauce, sugar, sake, mirin, and dashi (if using). Mix well. Set aside.
Be prepared to work quickly when water is boiling and keep the ice water bowl nearby. When pot of water is boiling, add the stem side of spinach first, then gently nudge in leaves, cooking for total of 30 seconds. That's it! Immediately move spinach to ice water to stop cooking process.
Remove spinach from ice water, squeezing it dry. If stems are long, you may want to chop to small pieces.
In the mixing bowl you prepared with the soy sauce mixture, add the spinach and toss gently and thoroughly with clean hands. Coat all the leaves. Transfer to new bowl and allow to sit about 10 minutes before serving. I like this dish better at room temperature than cold.
Keeps in the fridge for about 1 week.
Notes
* I've tried using thawed frozen spinach for this recipe and it's okay. The fresh spinach is better. ** I have used a mix of toasted sesame seeds and toasted unsalted sunflower seeds with fair results. It's not the same but works if you don't have enough sesame seeds (which has happened more than once with me, and I desperately wanted gomaae and was willing to sacrifice some of the flavor). Sesame really is better.
Recipe by story of a kitchen at https://www.storyofakitchen.com/vegetable-recipes/horenso-no-gomaae-spinach-gomaae-recipe/