Black sesame paste

Pâte de sésame noir

What it is

Black sesame is the oldest of the tangyuan fillings eaten on the fifteenth night of the lunar new year, and the classic version is not paste alone: the ground seed is beaten with sugar and lard, which sets solid in the fridge and runs the instant the dumpling is boiled. Because the seed is unhulled the paste is bitter in a way tahini never is, which is why the recipes carry more sugar than they look as though they should.

In the kitchen

It seizes on contact with water: loosen it with a neutral oil or with the fat already called for, never with cold milk or syrup poured in. For ice cream, eighty grams of paste per litre of base is already assertive; past a hundred the bitterness reads as burnt.

Goes with

White sugar Glutinous rice flour Cream Dark chocolate Honey Matcha Lard Okinawan black sugar

Same species

Black sesame Chinese sesame paste Rāyu Sesame Toasted sesame oil

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