Day 2 - Salt replacer

Actually I should call this Salt Extender rather than replacer. Gomashio is a traditional Japanese seasoning also used in Zen and macrobiotic cooking. It consists of sesame seeds mixed with a small proportion of salt, usually 8 parts sesame to 1 part salt by weight, and is sprinkled on rice and other dishes. Sesame seeds are an inspired way of extending and improving on salt. They are rich in magnesium and iron, contain fibre, vitamin B1 and vitamin E. They also taste great.

So it's good stuff and ideal for a salt reducing regime. I've always loved it but never tried making it myself before so I went on a trip around the web and found this excellent recipe at Just Bento which suits me because I also favour a grey salt from Brittany and the comments about grinding could have been my own. There's also a version there for making the gomashio on the hob. Makiko says, and I agree, that a 10:1 proportion of sesame to salt is easy to calculate and tastes just as good.

To make a good sized jar of Gomashio, which will keep for a while take 200g of raw (untoasted) sesame seeds and arrange them on an oven tray with a good rim. The rim is important because you need to stir the seeds during processing and don't want them spilling everywhere.

Pop them in the oven with the thermostat set at 150C for 5 to 10 minutes (depends if the oven was hot when they went in) while you prepare a brine with 20g of good quality salt in about 150-200 ml of hot water. Make sure all the salt crystals have dissolved.

Get the tray of seeds out of the oven, they'll be hot and starting to toast (but not burnt!) so use gloves. Drizzle your brine over the sesame using a spoon so that there are no tsunami like events that wash everything away. It will sizzle wonderfully.

Stir everything around until all the seeds are wet then put the tray back into the oven and reduce the heat to about 120C. Leave to dry for about an hour giving everything a stir halfway through.

At the end of the hour, give it all another stir to make sure all the seeds are separate and there are no soggy pockets then turn off the heat and leave the tray in the cooling oven to dry completely. When cold store in an airtight jar.

It's then ready to be sprinkled over rice or beans, used whole or ground down a little in the pestle and mortar for a finer sprinkle. Salty and good for you.