Open, sesame

Some nice things inside inside (as long as you do as I say, not as I do).

I watched an absolutely bonkers video this week of a woman extolling the virtues of a “life-changing” change she’d made to her family’s health (in my defence, the video involved ice cream so I thought it important to keep watching).

Want to know the secret? She tipped out half the contents of a bottle of funfetti (aka sprinkles, or hundreds and thousands) and replaced it with a mixture of chia and sesame seeds, before shaking it all together and then using it to top ice cream. By her logic, this was going to drastically boost her family’s ingestion of protein and fibre, and therefore change their lives. Harrumph. That’s 90 seconds of my life down the drain.

Anyway, it did make me think about the following recipe, which, if I had no scruples, I would also claim to be high in protein and fibre. (I mean, it sort of is, but must everything be reduced to the sum of its nutrient parts?) It’s also quite high in sugar and contains plenty of allergens. But there’s no food colouring in it!

You may be thinking… mmm, I was sort of keen until I saw the photo. Let me explain: I put these in the oven and then started tappety-tip-tapping away at my keyboard… 30 minutes later realised I could smell something burning. In my haste to grab the tin out of the oven I used a wet tea towel, burned my hand, dropped the tin, scattered broken and burned tahini bars from one end of the kitchen to the other (you probably heard me swearing from your place). Anyway… we’re now out of chocolate and rolled oats and I don’t trust myself not to burn something again (see below) so this is the best chance of a picture. Don’t call MPI, no one will be eating it!

Seedy Tahini Bars

I’ve been making these almost endlessly customisable bars for years and years (today is the first time I’ve thrown them on the floor - a customisation I won’t be repeating). As long as you maintain the same ratios of tahini to sweet syrup to rolled oats, the other ingredients can be switched out to suit your cupboards. They’re rich, chewy and not too sweet. My favourite combinations are very dark chocolate and tangy New Zealand apricots, or currants and almonds. Play around until you find a favourite mix.

1/2 cup tahini (see below for a homemade version)
3 generous Tbsp golden syrup (or maple syrup)
3 generous Tbsp honey
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup sesame seeds
A generous pinch of salt
Finely grated zest of 1 orange
50-70g dark chocolate, roughly chopped
50g (about 1/3 of a cup) dried fruit (apricots are ideal, dates good, cranberries fun, currants pleasingly small, raisins ok), chopped unless small

Heat the oven to 180C. Line a 20 x 20cm tin with baking paper.

Put the tahini, honey and syrup in a large bowl and stir to combine, then tip in the other ingredients. Mix well and press evenly into the prepared pan.

Bake for 20 minutes, until golden brown. It will still be soft, but it will harden as it cools. Mark out the bars while still warm (score them with a knife so they get the idea of where they’re going to be cut later), then cut when cold.

Store in an airtight container. Makes about 18 bars.

Good Things

DIY Tahini

You might consider this to be in the same category as knitting your own yoghurt, but making your own tahini is easy. The only trick is not over-toasting the seeds (which is what I did in the batch photographed above - I tell you, it’s been a week).

1 1/2 cups sesame seeds
4-5 Tbsp neutral-tasting oil

Toast the sesame seeds lightly in a dry pan - and I mean lightly. They should be the colour of pale honey rather than golden syrup. Don't wander away or get distracted, give them your undivided attention for about three minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool.

Tip the seeds into a food processor and whiz until they start to form a paste (a couple of minutes). Drizzle in the oil until the mixture slackens to the consistency you want. Scrape into a sterilised jar and store in the fridge.

The Hungry Cook will make you hungrier

If you’re a dish mag reader you’ll be familiar with the work of Olivia Galletly, an Auckland food writer/photographer/stylist/general dynamo. I’ve been spending some time with her debut book (named after her blog) in the past week or so and it’s pretty great. Olivia’s recipes neatly walk the line between achievable and aspirational, with lots of good ideas to make weeknight dinners more exciting. So far, I highly recommend the pork schnitzel and curry noodle soup with crispy chicken - and I can’t wait to make the boozy brownies, but I’m going to wait until I’ve stopped burning things.

Oui or NON?

‘Stanley plum, beetroot, Shiraz grape skin, blackberry, fir pine, sugar, tamari, ancho chilli, French oak’ - the ingredients list for NON no. 9 reads like a menu entry at a restaurant specialising in shared plates. While it’s not exactly a meal in a glass, this very high-end non-alcoholic red wine alternative has had about as much work go into its production. I’d mostly rather drink tap water than most non-alcoholic wines, but this is a very subtle and sophisticated drop that’s designed to accompany food. The downside? It’s pretty pricey - quite a lot more than I’d pay for a bottle of decent wine - so you wouldn’t crack one open every night after work. If you’ve found a good non-alcoholic red wine that won’t break the bank and doesn’t taste like Ribena, do share this intel with the group.

Next week on Fancy Butter… lots of ways to use lemons.