Tag: sesame

Five Minute Photo Shoot: Brussels Sprouts and Soba

For dinner last night: roasted Brussels sprouts, tossed with black and white sesame seeds, fish sauce, soy sauce, and sriracha.  Served over soba noodles tossed with toasted sesame oil, topped with Maytag blue cheese and green onions.  Cornbread on the side, because cornbread and Brussels sprouts are good friends.

Sesame oil and soba noodles has got to be one of the best flavor combinations of all time.  The smell is just intoxicating.  I could eat it every day.

The sprouts were roasted according to a method in a recent Cook’s Illustrated: toss with oil, salt, pepper, and 1 T water.  Roast in a sheet pan cut-side down and covered with foil at 500° F for 10 minutes, uncover and roast another 10 minutes or so.  They steam gently, and the texture and browning are perfect.  It’s my new go-to for Brussels sprouts.

Five Minute Photo Shoot: Soba, Hijiki, Radishes, and Red Pepper

Leftovers for lunch: soba noodles obscured in an ocean of hijiki (seaweed), radishes, red bell pepper, red jalapeño, mint, cilantro, parsley, lime, sesame seeds, and sesame oil.  I made it for a client last week, sans seaweed, and got so hungry for it that I came home and made it again for myself.  Recipe is (adapted) from my latest obsession, Yotam Ottolenghi’s Plenty.


Soba and sesame oil together are one of the world’s most amazing flavor pairings.  It’s almost better than tomato and basil.

Yes, I may have made the same recipe recently.  This is how I cook: rarely the same dish twice, even from the same recipe.  It makes me smile.

Five Minute Photo Shoot: Soba and Seaweed

For dinner earlier this week: soba noodles, in the manner of Yotam Ottolenghi from his newest cookbook, Plenty, which is changing my life over here.  Included are wakame (the seaweed), sesame, red chilies, tiny French breakfast radishes, and tons of farmers market herbs, such as something called “crinkle cress”, a miniscule cress that tastes of wasabi.  Amazing stuff.