If you have a really good food processor or blender which will puree nut butters to a smooth consistency, dump a pound, or whatever the volume will work best, into the machine and whirr until very smooth. If the oil separates out, stir it back in. You can also toast and/or salt for more flavor before you whirr. Give yourself plenty of time to scrape it all out, and a good hot water soak will make the vessel much easier to clean.

OTOH, I don't believe that you can't get tahini (or techinah, or various other spellings). Ask for sesame paste or sesame butter. Try any Middle Eastern, North African or Jewish grocery. Also try health food stores, gourmet shops, and any place that has a good vegan section. When I was young, before it was widely available and impossible to make with home equipment unless you wanted to spend days pounding, my mother would go to the local Lebanese market to get it.

Like any of the nut butters, you can control the quality. Roast it, toast it. You can buy seeds already toasted, or raw. If you have a good source for nice fresh seed, and a good blender, it is nice to toast and whiz your own. I only do it that way for the cast iron toasted seed i put in dressings and use on/in salads, chicken salads, stir fry, garnish for spring rolls, etc. The whole toasted seed makes a good tahini easily...keeping a heaping spoonful set aside to garnish the dish just adds another note. Cold sesame noodle for example.

Or leave it to the experts and find a quality one in a jar. Some are more bitter than others, some are nutty, slightly sweet right out of the jar. I've tasted a few of them. For years i only saw one consistently everywhere. (the squat tin with the plastic snap lid). Kevala organic is a good one. Just one of many available now.

No amazon where you are? I bet it is available somewhere local as pllog mentioned.

I cannot get seed or jar where i am now. Found some seed in my cupboard and a bag of dried garbanzo beans. My seed package insisted i rinse/soak, then boil 30 minutes. Now roasting in my oven. More work than i really wanted. And the black seed i'm not sure i really want to use blended with the beans...cannot imagine a humus with an ashen gray/black color.

Now, I do believe that in remote parts of Newfoundland there isn't any tahini at the hardware store. :)

Poppy seeds, lots of poppy seeds. : )

The black seeds were a bust. I did not over roast them at all. The oven was a low slow 250 ish. No flavor, not even earthy. (i think i bought them in China town, NYC, a dozen yrs ago.) Should have known better.

I ended up using a 1/4 cup of pistachios. Some chopped for garnish.

Any nut butters work as a substitute. It is really good...a bit of avocado oil, lemon, (an organic small jar i packed), cider vinegar, lots of spices that seemed to suit... fresh garlic. As good as any hummus i've had.

We've got plenty of ice...lol

Thank you, Peeps. I'm not sure what I'd do with 5 jars of the stuff! No easten, exotic or Jewish shope round here. Brittany is the wild west of France!

However, I did look on amazon. Which one would you recommend?tahini

ooh ahh. I'll take a pair of these tahini femmes, Send with table cloth please, haha. http://www.amazon.fr/Franco-Sarto-Tahini-Chaussures-Pointure/dp/B00BXF5VT6/ref=sr_1_17/277-8953961-8872157?ie=UTF8&qid=1432024836&sr=8-17&keywords=tahini

I usually juggle by filtering reviews if i don't know exactly a favorite brand. Then choose organic and roasted when you narrow it down.

I've got dinner planned....falafel and tzatiki.

Weird. My message has disappeared! It said that the Al Wadi brand, which is also sold in the States, is made in Lebanaon and seems to be the real deal without added oil, etc., that some use as extenders. Here's a link to the Amazon page. Maybe the PTB didn't like my quoting the copy. (As far as I know, Amazon is okay with it.)

http://www.amazon.com/Al-Wadi-Tahina-Ground-16-Ounce/dp/B001E5E2CW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1432063561&sr=8-1&keywords=tahini+al+wadi

I generally prefer techina made in the Middle East, organic, and containing only sesame seeds. I usually prefer raw as well, though there's nothing wrong with toasted. It just depends on what you're making and how you want it to taste. It should be stiff-ish, but not like cement (cement is what you get if the oil is drained off). If you can pour it easily, it's too thin, though it's supposed to be thinner than peanutbutter.

Thanks for the help. I'll place an order and transform my hummous - that I now know what it really means!!!

Really means? Hummous (hummus, chomus) means "chickpea". It's Arabic. Many dishes called hummus have whole chickpeas and no techina in them. The name for the pureed salad (yes, it's called a salad) that is a combination of sesame paste and chickpeas is actually hummus b'techina or hummous bi tahini.

However you say it, congrats on your purchase! You can also make halvah with tahini--best with honey rather than sugar. Recipes abound on the web. Flaky is good. Gooey, not so much.

Eggplant salad is a must. Well, it's my favorite, anyway. Not everyone loves it. Puncture the skin in many places with a fork to let out the steam (you do not want to discover what happens if you don't). Put it under a hot broiler, or char it on flames, turning regularly, until the skin is all brown and blistered and the whole thing is caved in. Split open and scrape out the eggplant with a spoon, getting the browned part from just inside the skin as well, just leaving the tough outside. Stir in some crushed roasted garlic and a goodly dollop of techina, and a squeeze of lemon juice, plus seasoning. MMMMMMM inducing. :)

Thin some techina with EVOO and add herbs for a delicious dressing. Thin with water and spices for a sauce. Stir in some pomegranate molasses for a spread.

(Did I mention that sesame is so much my favorite that I think I must have been born with a hankering for it? I'm going into raptures because you are buying it...)

HAHAHA! Yes, you explained to us on another thread what the word hummus meant. I would never have known otherwise.

Oh! Sorry! Didn't mean to harp. It's my bugaboo. Irrational. Can't change people. But there it is. I keep putting it out there...

Is that what you meant?

I get weirded out sometimes. Hummus b'techina went from my childhood friends saying, "Eeew! What's that??" to my young adulthood with "You make your own?? By HAND??" to packaged in every local grocery store, usually in several varieties. And the techina itself went from a special trip to the Lebanese or Jewish market, to also being available in every grocery in several types.

BTW, other, vegan, uses for techina are for body in desserts like brownies, where you want a fudgy feel, and as the glue in patties, balls and burgers. I can't vouch for the flavor in such circumstances, but it's a change from the ever-present cashews that are such a staple of vegan cookery.

OT

Pllog - can you make flakey halvah? I have tried a couple of times - gooey or rock hard. Tasted ok but texture wasn't. One of my big losses living in the boondocks.

Agmss, I never was in charge--only helped--and it's been a good while. I found this recipe, though, which seems to have some of the secrets (and looks like a good recipe):
http://fourman.dsl.pipex.com/recipes/honey-sesame-halva.html

You have to keep the mass warm so that you can stretch it, but this recipe is for a small amount (not much mass) and talks about turning it out on marble, as a confectioner would. Marble has a lot of mass, however, and will stay cool in a cool house. We had marble counters, but for sure we didn't have it right on the marble. I think it was oiled waxed paper taped around a baking board. The counter is never kosher. Additionally, it would have been over 90° F out, and not too much cooler inside. I'm sure that helps. I'm thinking about how you could keep the mass warm, but you also need the outside to firm up, so I'm not sure a hot tray would help. But we just made it and weren't thinking about things like that. I learned about the warmth thing from the 'net. :)

Making halvah is a sticky, gooey, disgusting process. I'd say make a four recipes batch on a warm day. Or try a one or two batch considering how to keep it warm and pliable.

Also, massage a lot of fresh (new bottle, no rancid smell) sesame oil into your hands and arms before you start, and wear a vinyl apron.

Homemade isn't angel wing light, like from the best bakeries (likely an expertise issue), but should be competitive with the packaged, grocery store kind.