I have been cooking my way through a couple of cookbooks by Harumi Kurihara and wanted to share this concept. She says that "gomadare" is a common technique in Japan but I can't remember ever encountering it on a restaurant menu. The 2 interesting things are 1) you make this very delicious sauce, delicious in the way that chocolate or peanut butter are delicious, from sesame paste and several other ingredients and 2) you put it on beautifully tender shredded chicken which is "steamed" in a covered bowl in the microwave.
I bought chicken thighs and boned them (only one bone per thigh) but left the skins on and cut the two "lobes" apart. Prick all over with a metal skewer. Put into a ceramic bowl with green scallion tops, salt and pepper, a crushed lump of fresh ginger, and a tablespoon of saké and cover with a dish, microwave until done. Probably 4-6 minutes depending on how much meat there is. You should not see pink when you stir the thighs. Allow to cool and shred the meat into chopstick-friendly pieces, discarding the skin. Keep the juices.
In a bowl stir:
4 TB sesame paste (you can use Tahini but I think asian sesame paste is better)
2 TB soy sauce
2 TB superfine sugar
1/2 TB rice vinegar
2 tsp to-ban-jan (chili paste) -- be careful here, cut back if you don't like hot food
2 TB rough ground sesame seeds
2 TB finely shredded green onions
2 tsp finely chopped ginger
2 tsp finely chopped garlic
1/4 cup of the chicken juices above
You end up with a sort of thick brown "gravy" which is, to my taste, exquisite. You dress the chicken with it and serve with sliced salted cucumber pieces on top, as a salad. OR you can serve with noodles which allows you to eat more of that great sauce!
We had a Curtis rosé which is made from a variety of red grapes including Grenache and Syrah, which went very well with the dish, served out on the deck as the sun set.
Have you had "gomadare" before? Maybe I am just terribly inexperienced.
F