Wood-ear Mushroom in Sesame Sauce キクラゲの胡麻和え

This is another dish I made to finish up the fresh wood ear mushrooms I got from Weee. Although we prepared the mushrooms by boiling and washing them before storing them in the fridge, I repeated the process for this dish since they were getting old. I got the idea for this dish from a recipe I saw on line.  I prepared the sesame sauce the way I usually make it using freshly re-roasted sesame seeds rather than following the recipe. The re-roasting adds a fresher sesame flavor. I also added golden thread egg or “kinshiran 金糸卵” mostly for color. This turned out to be quite a good dish. The wood ear mushrooms gave a nice crunch in contrast to the softer vegetables.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup blanched and washed wood-ear mushrooms, cut into thin strips (I used whatever was left which was about 1/2 cup)
2 small carrots, peeled, cut into thick match sticks about1 inch long then boiled in salted water for a few minutes and cooled
7-8 green beans (I had ones already streamed for 3 minutes and cooled), cut into the. same size as the carrots. 
golden thread egg for garnish (optional)

Dressing:
1 tbs white sesame seeds, dry roast using either small dry frying pan or a special sesame roasting pan
1 tbs white sesame paste
1 tbs soy sauce
2 tsp sugar
1-2 tsp rice vinegar

Directions:
Add the roasted sesame seeds in a Japanese mortar and pestle or “suri-bachi 摺鉢”  and grind them until some oil comes out.
Add the sesame paste, sugar and soy sauce and mix using the pestle or “suri-kogi すりこぎ” . Taste and add more soy sauce if needed. Add the rice vinegar.
If the consistency is too thick and the seasoning is strong enough, add warm water to make the consistency appropriate for dressing.
Dress the vegetables and mushrooms and garnish with the egg threads.

This is a nice dish. It can go as a small side dish for a Japanese meal or a drinking snack. It can also go with red wine especially if you do not make the dressing too vinegary.