Chinese sesame paste

Pâte de sésame grillé chinoise

What it is

Zhima jiang is ground from seed roasted almost to the point of burning, which is why it is brown where tahini is pale, and why it tastes of the roast rather than of the seed. In Beijing it is the whole of the dipping sauce for lamb hotpot, loosened with fermented bean curd and chive flower and nothing else.

In the kitchen

It sets like cement at the bottom of the jar: loosen it a spoon of liquid at a time, cold and slowly, or it seizes and splits. For a noodle sauce, one part paste to one part water first, then the soy and the vinegar.

Goes with

Soba noodles Cucumber Chinkiang vinegar Fermented bean curd Lamb Sichuan pepper

Same species

Black sesame Black sesame paste Rāyu Sesame Toasted sesame oil

Also used with

Ya cai

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