Name: Lebanese Tarator Tahini Sauce
Prep time: 10 min
Total time: 10 min
Yield: 8 servings
Cuisine: Lebanese
Ingredients: 200 g roasted sesame tahini; 4 tablespoons lemon juice, freshly squeezed; 2 cloves garlic, crushed to a paste with salt; 100 to 150 ml ice cold water; half a teaspoon fine salt; a pinch ground cumin; 1 tablespoon flat-leaf parsley, chopped; 1 teaspoon cold-pressed sesame oil, to finish

Before you cook

Tahini thickens dramatically when the first water hits it, and most people panic and stop. Keep going; it loosens into silk on the far side.

Add lemon before water. The acid does part of the loosening and the sauce holds together better for it.

Method

Crush the garlic with the salt until it becomes a smooth wet paste.
Whisk the tahini and the garlic paste together in a wide bowl.
Add the lemon juice and whisk hard as the mixture stiffens and seizes.
Keep whisking through the thick stage without adding water yet.
Add ice cold water one tablespoon at a time, whisking after each.
Watch the sauce pale and loosen suddenly once enough water is in.
Stop when it ribbons off the whisk and holds its line briefly.
Season with the cumin and more salt, tasting as the acidity settles.
Rest for ten minutes, then check the thickness and loosen if needed.
Finish with parsley and a thread of sesame oil just before serving.

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