Tahini

tahini (sometimes tahina) an oily cream (paste) which is extracted from sesame seeds. The seeds are first soaked in water for 25 hours before being crushed with a heavy hammer to loosen the bran from the kernels. The crushed seeds are put to soak again in highly salted water—the salt content being enough to ‘float an egg’—for the bran to sink while the kernels are skimmed off the surface and grilled before being sent to the mill to be ground and release the thick oily cream (paste). There are two types of tahini, a light ivory one and another darker one, the former being generally superior in both taste and texture. Besides being used as is, tahini can be embodied in savoury dips for mezze (e.g. tarator, hummus, baba ghanoush); used in making halva (with sugar syrup, essences, and bois de Panama); or diluted with the juice of Seville oranges and stock and cooked to make a sauce for Kibbeh ʿarnabiyeh.