Modern Tea Party: Ingen-mame no Goma-ae (Green Beans, tossed in Sesame)

For our very first Modern Tea Party post, we put together something simple and perfect for afternoon tea!

{Green beans tossed in Sesame, Rice Balls with Matcha Salt, Sen-cha}

Green beans are in season during the summer, and that's what kaiseki is all about - showcasing the season's good eats!

Green Beans or Ingen-mame, were introduced to Japan when Zen Priest Ingen brought it from China in the year 1654. Since tea's deeply connected with Zen buddhism, it's often used in tea meals and buddhist cooking (Shojin cuisine). Today we used crisp, young beans called saya-Ingen, or 'sheath Ingen,' which are often served with a little sesame sauce. Sometimes they are sliced and used as garnish of nimono (stewed dishes) or boiled and seasoned with soysauce as hitashimono (soaked dishes).

The recipe we have for you today is a simple one that is very bold and flavor and goes extremely well with rice (and sake!)! A little bit of this and a small rice ball is the perfect afternoon snack with some crisp green tea. For a traditional kaiseki, this would be a perfect side dish in the hassun course.

Ingen-mame no Goma-ae (Green Beans, tossed with Sesame) - serves 2

10-12 green beans: brightly green, with no apparent bruises
4 tbsp roasted sesame seeds
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sake (Japanese cooking wine)
1 tbsp mirin (Japanese cooking sherry)
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp dashi (fish broth, of fumet. Check out What is Dashi?)
a pinch of salt

1. Blanch green beans until the color turns bright. Quickly remove from pot, and dunk into a bowl of ice water to crisp. Once cooled, squeeze excess water off, and cut into 2-inch pieces.
2. Combine the remaining ingredients make sesame sauce.
3. Add the beans and gently tossed until well coated.

The rice balls are topped with a little bit of matcha salt, made with our Green Tea Terrace matcha. Matcha salt is a wonderful way to add a little bit of color and umami to a dish, and is a very popular finishing salt. Check out how Eric, the Break Away Chef, makes matcha salt HERE. We used a 4:1 ratio of sea salt vs matcha powder!

To end the meal, we think that a crisp, clean cup of sen-cha would be perfect.