Serves 2
Quite a popular dish, you find this or a slight variation of it on most family dining tables and at restaurants.
Horenso, pronounced ho (as in a garden hoe) - ren - soh, means "spinach" and sarada means - you guessed it - salad (it's pronounced sah-rah-dah in Japanese, though).
Ingredients
Crush sesame seeds in a mortar (use a Japanese suribachi if you have one.)
Mix the shoyu, sugar and a dash of salt with the ground sesame seeds to form the dressing for the salad.
Wash the spinach
Add a dash of salt to enough water to immerse spinach in and heat to boiling.
Put spinach in the boiling water and boil. Remove when spinach is still firm. Do not boil until spinach becomes soft.
Put into a colander, run cold water over the spinach for 30 seconds or so, remove the spinach and wring to remove excess water.
Cut the bunch into 4 sections, arrange in a serving dish and top with the sesame topping
Serve at room temperature
As in all of the recipes on our pages, you might have to experiment a bit to get this dish to your liking. This author prefers less sugar than most and uses only 2 tablespoons in making this dish, however, after consulting with a few housewives, it seems that most people use a bit more sugar, hence the amount suggested in this recipe.
Copyright 1998, A.E.L.S., Inc. Billy Hammond