How sesame seeds and their healthy oil add flavour to dishes, including a Chinese dessert
The tiny seeds, which are sprinkled over food or pressed for their nutritious oil, are a key ingredient of Chinese deep-fried sesame balls
Sesame seeds give you a lot of bang for your buck or, to put it more elegantly, a lot of flavour for their size.
The tiny seeds of the Sesamum indicum plant, which have a very high oil content, are even more flavourful when toasted.
This is easy to do with a small, inexpensive Japanese tool called (what else?) a sesame-seed toaster: a flat pan with a mesh hinged lid that you lock into place after putting in the seeds.
The lid allows you to shake the pan vigorously without the seeds jumping out if they pop (as they sometimes do) over the heat.
Most people think sesame seeds are either white (they are actually pale tan) or black, but they also come in colours including grey and golden. They are used in many parts of the world, including Asia, Africa and the Middle East.