Sesame green beans is one of the classics among the Japanese home food recipes. Because of its commonness, easily overlooked, but one of my childhood favourites. For the French literary great Marcel Proust, the elixir of memories of his childhood might have been a petite madeleine, but that wouldn't work on Japanese-bred me. What I needed was that nutty flavoured light sweet green beans tucked into a corner of my bento box.

Instead of going through the long processes of roasting and grinding sesame seeds in a Japanese mortar and pestle, which are the essential efforts to impart their nice robust flavor, I wanted a simple and easy shortcut on a whim. I am tempted to use peanuts butter instead. The peanuts butter version tastes a bit flat so that I should mash up a little garlic to give it some dimension when I go that route.