India is home to sesame but Tahini - sesame paste - is nowhere to be found.
<p>Oil is extracted by ghani by traditional cold press process. Although farmers from Rajasthan to Tamil Nadu harvest sesame and every little village had it's own mill and oil press shop, I couldn't find sesame paste. So for my favor dish, Tahini, I had to get sesame oil, buy seeds at the market, then grind the seeds in a mortar &amp; pestle or a 'mixi' (little chutney blender, more like a coffee bean grinder) while adding in the oil until reaching a smooth paste consistency.
</p><p>So does the paste disapear to in the process of turning seeds into oil in those mills ?
</p>
Well, it's a stage on the process but it never stops there. After 2 hours of pressing the seeds the oil is all drained and the leftover 'cake' (as seen in the photo here) is given out to cows...
<a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Etan_Doronne" title="User:Etan Doronne">Etan Doronne</a>
CC BY-SA 3.0
<span class="int-own-work" lang="en">Own work</span>