I had a yen for a little something something Valentine’s Day afternoon.  While the rest of you were focused on chocolate or something pink I was jonesing for the tastes of Japan. One of the most common is sesame in the form of a creamy dressing that appears often on broccoli or a tiny mixed salad.  I had some super sweet and crunchy sugar snap peas and a Chinese green harvest radish in the fridge.  I’m kind of obsessed with these big green skinned radishes lately.  Spicy and crunchy.  Whenever I buy a big head of cauliflower I always cut out the core to eat raw. I conveniently had one of those which I cut into slices.  So crisp watery crunch dipped into creamy, earthy-nutty sesame.  Win!  But many recipes for the dressing involved mayonnaise and additional sugar which I really didn’t want.  So I decided to riff.  Instead of toasting and grinding my own sesame seeds I just pulled out a jar of tahini and spooned a few tablespoons into a small bowl.  To cut the fat I added rice vinegar.  I only had brown rice vinegar in the house so that’s what I used, but use any kind you have.  Then for saltiness I drizzled in some Japanese Shoyu I bought at the fermentation specialist restaurant Kamoshi-do.  All it took was the addition of a bit of water to create a creamy texture.  It takes five minutes to make. This is going to be my new obsession.

Japanese Creamy Sesame Dip/Dressing

1/4 cup Tahini
2-4 teaspoons brown rice vinegar
1-3 teaspoonz shoyu or to taste
1 to 3 tablespoons Water

Mix together the tahini, rice vinegar and shoyu in small bowl.  Adjust flavors to taste.  Like it more sour?  Add more vinegar.  Need a little more salt?  Add shoyu.  But just add driblets at a time.  Once the flavor is balanced to your taste it’s time to adjust the texture from peanut buttery to creamy. To get the texture you want, thicker for a dip, thinner for a dressing add water a teaspoon at a time while stirring with a spoon.  Yep.  That’s it.

Serve with crunchy vegetables for an addicting and healthy dip.