[Sca-cooks] Apropos Sesame Oil

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Huette wrote:
>--- lilinah at earthlink.net wrote:
>  >  - but most interesting was (3) the Black Sesame Gelato.
>  >
>  > Talk about earthy - and not only was it jam packed with crushed black
>  > sesame seeds so that it was grey, but there was definitely a dash of
>  > roasted sesame oil in it. Geoffroi really did NOT like it.
SNIP
>  > Mmm-mmm-mmm, gray ice cream with crunchy black bits.
>
>Sounds better than the black licorice ice cream
>that Baskin Robbins used to produce...

Well, this topic has certainly been done to death, but i'm one of 
those who REALLY dislikes the taste of intense anise, which is how 
most USAmerican black licorice is flavored. I tried that ice cream 
(uh, like, this was back in the 1970s when i was in my 20s), and 
black ice cream was *cool!* but i really detested the taste (having 
your lips, tongue, and inside of your mouth stained black was also 
*cool!*)

I have had real licorice, and while i'm not fond of it, i will 
tolerate it more than intense anise.

I don't mind a little light anise and i do use it in period cooking 
when it is called for.

(BING! BING!) (bright light goes on) I got a little gelato machine 
from my landlady, who lives downstairs, when she had a garage sale a 
month or two ago... I've got black sesame seeds and i've got roasted 
sesame oil... so i could experiment...

Alas, i have been having a difficult time finding black sesame 
butter. A formerly local health food brand used to make it, but they 
were bought be a bigger company, and now i can't find the stuff 
anymore.

One summer i was attending a two week Medieval Music program (this 
was quite a few years before i joined the SCA), and therefore not 
working (i was taking vacation time, but it was unpaid), so i was 
rather impecunious. I had a loaf of that really dark brown bread 
(colored, no doubt, with molasses) that claims to be Russian, and 
lurking in the back of the fridge was a bottle of commercial mince 
meat (no meat) - also very very dark brown, and i had a jar of black 
sesame butter... so i made these almost black sandwiches...

(SNIFF) now I'm getting rather nostalgic...

Anahita
who has long fantasized about having a black meal:
squid ink pasta with tapanade (black olive paste with anchovies 
(mmm-mmm-mmm, i love anchovies), certain kinds of seaweed (hijiki and 
wakame) cooked with soy sauce and black sesame seeds... of course 
there's more...