Tahini

[JanetGroene]

1. Should tahini be refrigerated after opening? How long can it last without? Label does not say.

2. I am in rural North Florida where only one brand of tahini is available. It's very thin. Can someone name some top brands and sources.

3. Any tricks to making your own tahini using beige or black sesame seeds?

[atoll]

i never refrigarate tahini,just make sure oil covers the paste,add oilive oil if nessacary.

[MadSailors]

Tahini can be stored in the cabinet for a short period, a couple of weeks to a month or in the refrigerator indefinitely. It is essentially like peanut butter.

It's easy enough to make with a good blender. To make roughly 3/4 cup of tahini, toast 1 cup of sesame seeds in a dry skillet for about 5 minutes until fragrant but not burned. Let cool slightly and place in a blender with a quarter cup of canola or vegetable oil (nothing flavored). Process, scraping down the sides frequently. Add more oil as needed to make a loose paste! Done!

[svBeBe]

I have a commercially packaged jar of tahini. Oil separates and remains on top over 1/2" high. Is there any other use for tahini besides humus? I don't know what possessed me to buy this jar because I have no idea what to do with it. Nothing written on the label except the expiration date.

Judy

[sea-bee]

Tahini is excellent on toast with miso and tomato.

It also makes an excellent vegie gravy when mixed with miso. Start with say a dessert spoon of miso, and gradually add hot water until it is a runny paste (50-100ml). Then add a dessertspoon of tahini, and stir that in. The more you stir, the stiffer it gets (like when you make humus). Add more hot water till you get the right consistency. Makes a tasty sauce to go with mushrooms and green vegies.

[Hannah on 'Rita T']

Tahini and rice wine make a great dressing for a cabbage salad, cabbage, crunched ramen noodles, water chestnuts and chicken if it is a meal.

[Katiusha]

In Turkey labels say to refrigerate tahini after opening. This way it goes rancid only after 3+ months. Olive oil would dillute the taste, so if your tahini is thin, it would dillute it even more.

Use in recipes:
* Add to stir-fry at the end as a thickener and instead of sesame oil.
* Warm it up over low heat with brown sugar/honey and sprinkle with lemon juice after - traditional Turkish dessert. Can also add ice cream after. If you can get some of the oil out the paste before warming it up, it would keep its form better.
* Dipping sauce for veggies, chicken, etc - add some spicy ingredient, like chili or tobasco, roasted garlic, some herb, lemon juice, a bit of sugar/mollases, possibly dillute with some other base, and done.
* Saute greens, like kale, spinach, etc with onion and garlic, and at the end add tahini with lemon juice.


If interested, lmk and I'll see if I can dig up some Turkish recipes as well.

[Katiusha]

A few more thoughts:

* try as a filling in cinnamon buns - almost a Turkish treat
* put on a pizza together with honey and some nuts - also a modified Turkish dessert.

[tamicatana]

Tahini mixed with a good rich yoghurt, like a Greek yoghurt, is one of the awesomest dips on earth. I just love it on potatoes, but frankly I'll just eat it by the spoonful

edit: forgot to say, I refrigerate mine. I store the jar on its side and turn it every so often to keep it mixed. If the tahini settles it's hard to remix

[JanetGroene]

Thanks for all these savvy and helpful replies. I love these ideas. My food samplers complain about the bland taste so I'm kicking it up a notch. The best thing is that it adds nutritional punch to both sweet and savory recipes

[hummingway]

As a side note: very high in calcium.

[tamicatana]

I just realized that I forgot to say, tahini, yoghurt, and GARLIC, oops... I would say other seasonings would be good also: cayenne, garam masala, etc

[Sailor_Hutch]

Originally Posted by JanetGroene

1. Should tahini be refrigerated after opening? How long can it last without? Label does not say.

2. I am in rural North Florida where only one brand of tahini is available. It's very thin. Can someone name some top brands and sources.

3. Any tricks to making your own tahini using beige or black sesame seeds?

Apologies for an old thread bump. But, I was looking for a good shelf-life oil, and it appears that Tahini is in the hunt. Cooking.stackexchange has a Q/A session about it, saying that it's much like honey in that it has no appreciable water content, which makes for a very long shelf life. Seems like good stuff for cruisers.

Most online recipes seem to be using it for low temp cooking (hummus, etc). I wonder if any cruisers use it as a basic cooking oil, and whether or not it's suitable for that?

[sailorcherry]

I always have a jar onboard. Pretty sure I had one open for 9 months, no problemo. I keep on a shelf with black plastic doors.
I make hummus onboard and use it for homemade dressing and sauces too.