Date Published: August 16th, 2020 | Last Updated: August 16th, 2020
Author: Abby |Category: sauces, dips, asian, easy
Serves: 1 cup | Prep time: 5 mins | Cook time: 30 secs

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I set out a goal for myself last week: to try and recreate Toby’s beloved Kewpie roasted sesame dressing. I’ve been making a lot of things from scratch lately and thought I’d give this a try. Toby was first introduced to the Kewpie brand of the dressing by our friend Laeticia who brought it to hotpot night. I’ve seen people use a lot of different sauces during hotpot, but this was the first time I saw roasted sesame dressing as a dip! She converted Toby that night and funny story, when the new Asian grocer we had been waiting for months to open near our home last year finally opened, they gave away a small gift with every purchase on their grand opening day – it was a mini bottle of Kewpie dressing! The bottle didn’t last long at all. When we moved to the farm a few months ago, we introduced Kewpie sesame dressing to Toby’s parents and it has since replaced the go-to 1 litre bottle of caesar dressing in the fridge – I think they approve.

Sesame dressing is a very common salad dressing used in Japanese restaurants, often served on top of the small salad in a bento box. It’s creamy, rich and full of sesame flavour. Kewpie or Wafu are one of the more popular brands of roasted sesame dressing you’ll see in the shops. We don’t live near an Asian grocer anymore which is another one of the reasons why I wanted to try and recreate it. Welp, I didn’t achieve my goal, but I did end up making a sauce that’s even stronger in sesame flavour than Kewpie and abandoned the original plan when I decided I liked my version better (sorry, not sorry). The freshly roasted sesame seeds in this recipe really shines through and gives it a deeper sesame flavour than the bottled versions and what’s best is that you can easily tweak the recipe to your own liking if you prefer it more sweet, salty, sour, savoury…etc.

Anyways, without further ado, here’s the recipe! If you have any comments or suggestions, I’d love to hear from you in the comment section! You can follow me on instagram, youtube and facebook to see all the recipes I post!

Happy cooking!

Ingredients you’ll need:

• 4 1/2 Tbsps white sesame seeds
• 5 Tbsps Kewpie mayonnaise (Japanese whole egg mayonnaise)
• 2 Tbsps rice wine vinegar
• 1 1/2 Tbsps soy sauce
• 2 Tbsps sugar
• 2 tsp sesame oil
• 2 tsp mirin
• 2 egg yolks
• 1/2 Tbsp neutral oil

Directions:

In a dry skillet on a low-medium heat, toast the sesame seeds until golden brown.

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Set aside 1/2 Tbsp of the toasted sesame seeds and grind the rest in a pestle and mortar.

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In a bowl, combine all the ingredients and mix: ground sesame seeds, reserved toasted sesame seeds, mayonnaise, rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, mirin, yolks, and oil. Whisk them together until combined. Taste and adjust flavours as needed. Done!

Summarized Recipe: