Black sesame oil

Oil pressed from toasted black sesame, dark brown to near black with a heavy aroma. It is what every 麻油 dish is built on: the ginger is fried in it until the slices curl at the edges before any meat goes in. It is not the pale light-sesame oil used as a finishing drizzle.

TCM properties

Nature · warming　Flavour · sweet　Meridians · liver、kidney、large intestine

Traditional food therapy

In Cantonese food therapy black sesame oil is used to moisten the bowel and warm the body, and it is the base of the warming dishes cooked after a birth.

Cautions: read first

• Where a wound is still open or inflamed after a birth, practitioners generally say to wait before eating dishes cooked with sesame oil and wine.
• It turns bitter if held at high heat too long; get the other ingredients in once the ginger is done.

Preparation

Into a cold wok, then fry the ginger gently until the slices curl at the edges.

Origin

Mostly the sesame-growing north of China; Taiwan and Hong Kong also press their own stone-milled oil. A staple at Australian Asian grocers, in both Chinese and Taiwanese brands

Availability in Australia

Common at Asian grocers

Pairs well with