Gomasio is also known as sesame salt. It is a great digestive to have over vegetables, rice, curries or salads. It is delicious!
I used the recipe from a recipe booked called Warmth: The Ayurvedic Cookbook by Nadia Marshall, Kester Marshall & Sensei Michael Doko Hatchett from the Mudita Institute in Byron Bay.
In the note they have beside this recipe, it explains that as the oil from the sesame seeds coats the salt, yin envelopes yang. Such lovely imagery! They also say that gomasio is an excellent way of getting good salt deep down into the belly where it enhances digestion, absorption & assimilation of nutrients.
Gomasio is regularly used in the cooking at Japanese Zen monasteries.
Gomasio
Ten parts raw unhulled sesame seeds.
One part good quality sea salt (I used Celtic sea salt)
Roast the salt in a pan for around 3 minute, or until the salt seems quite dry.
Use a mortar and pestle to grind it into a very fine powder.
Next roast the sesame seeds in a pan with a tight fitting lid. Listen for some crackles, then take the pan off the heat and shake the pan up and down a few times.
Add the seeds to the salt in the mortar. There will be a little bit of smoke, but you don't want it to smell burnt, as it will mean the sesame seeds are over-toasted.
Grind the salt and seeds together, but with a fairly light hand. Grind until about three quarters of the seeds have broken open. Don't grind too hard.
Keep it in an airtight container. It will be fine away from direct heat but it keeps well in the fridge.
Recipe taken from
By Nadia Marshall, Kester Marshall & Sensei Michael Doko Hatchett
