Today I have a bit of twist with my recipe! I have been always wanting to present Bangladeshi homemade food as diversified and appealing so that people from different counties and cultures can also enjoy our food. Today I found a recipe that I presented in Danish way and I also ate it, I couldn’t believe myself that I would turn out that great! Yes, I am talking about humble sesame seeds and how we Bangladeshis make spread (bhorrta) of it and I presented how it can be consumed with bread too. So please keep reading to the end!

Did you know that sesame seeds have lots protein, for every 100g of sesame seeds, it provide 18g of protein. It is an excellent source of protein for vegan people. We Bengalis use the seeds mostly to make oil but most common way to eat is to make a spread/bhorrta and eat with rice.

To make the spread or bhorrta, we need sesame seeds, lots of garlic and dried red chili and green chili, mustard oil and some onion. Usually in Bangladesh we make this bhorrta using pata-puta (a big mortar pestle thingy where you can mash anything, you name it!), but since I don’t have one, I will use a blender/grinder.

To begin with, we have to slightly toast the sesame seeds in medium heat, without any oil. Thus the seeds will release more flavor, but we have to be careful of the heat, if the seeds are burnt, they will taste more bitter.

See how the seeds turned out after toasting. After toasting, I put the seeds in a plate to cool them down before grinding them.

While the seeds are being cooled off, in the same pan, I toasted some dried red chilies, until all sides become darker and get puffed up. I kept the toasted chilies aside and in the same pan, I added some oil and then fried onion until they are slightly golden.

When garlic are roasted then I added onion cubes. You can use any onions you like, but I used red (and I forgot to take picture of it). When onions are sauteed and translucent, I took them off of the heat and set them aside to cool it down.

Now, before making the spread/bhorrta, I first ground the seeds and toasted chili together, without any oil or salt. This way the seeds are ground like a fine powder and get mixed well with onions and garlic. If you grind everything together, sometimes it doesn’t grind that smoothly and leaves a big chunks.

In the grinder/blender, with the ground sesame seeds and chili, I added fried onion, garlic and salt and the mustard oil where the onions-garlic were fried. Then blended them for couple of minutes until they became my desired consistency. I stopped and checked the consistency in between grinding and stirred with a spoon when needed.

The final look is deep dark shiny sesame spread, which is to be eaten with rice or even with bread. I would say it has a nutty flavour and super healthy, as it contains a lots of protein. And here is the twist I was talking (or writing) about! I put the sesame seed spread on top of the Danish bread called Rugbrød and made a typical Danish open sandwich! And believe me it was so great! I used cucumber and tomato as toppings but you can use any toppings you want like sweet pea leaves, onions (roasted or pickled) etc, as long as the main ingredients is sesame seed spread! It’s an excellent vegan option for Danish open sandwich (Smørrebrød) and I think I will make this Sesame seed spread smørrebrød for my Danish friends and present my traditional food in a Danish way to them!

Recipe: Sesame seed spread – few servings Prepping and cooking time: 10 minutes

Ingredients: 1 cup Sesame seed Spice and Condiments: 1 medium red/white Onion 1/4 tbs fine Salt 20ml Bangladeshi Mustard Oil Dried Chili – as desired Green Chili – as desired Garlic – 4 big fat cloves

Instruction: 1. Toast Sesame seeds in a medium heat until releases fragrance and begins set them aside to cool down. 2. Toast dried red chili in the same pan and set them aside. Warm some mustard oil in the same fry-pan, fry garlic first until golden in color. Then add onion chunks and green chili and fry until translucent. Set them aside until cooled down. 3. In a grinder/blender, grind cooled down toasted seeds and dried chili. Stop when its fine powdered texture. 4. Add fried onion, garlic and chili, salt in the left over seed-chili mix and grind again until semi-smooth paste. Add mustard oil if needed. Serve with rice or make a sandwich filling with the Sesame seed spread.