Tuesday, June 26, 2007

A Great Cucumber Salad

It's been wicked hot here in Michigan -- unnaturally so, when you consider that it isn't even July yet -- so we have been living on our respective porch and patio much of the week, and grilling our meals; we invested in a nice little portable charcoal grill for my place, and I've lent Fellow Traveler my mack-daddy George Foreman electric kettle grill for her patio.

This weekend I made chicken satay with bottled peanut sauce...while looking for suitable go-alongs on the Internet I came upon this recipe. It is so good...I am not usually thrilled about traditional cucumber salad, but this kicks things up a notch.

Indonesian Cucumber Salad For Two

1 large cucumber, peeled/seeded/sliced thin
the juice of half a lime
1 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp. sweet chile paste
maybe three sliced green onions
a tiny splat of fish sauce or oyster sauce or soy sauce

First of all: These measurements are highly arbitrary starting points; taste and refine. (You'll want to add a lot more chili paste, I found, and you might want more lime juice as well.) Refrigerate at least an hour. Enjoy. This rocks; and I think the flavors improve the next day.

3 comments:

zorra said...

I'll make this tonight!

Anonymous said...

Doesn't the cucumber get all soggy by the next day?

LutheranChik said...

I sliced them paper-thin to begin with -- the family custom -- so "soggy" is kind of a relative term. I did drain off some of the accumulated liquid the next day; it didn't seem to diminish the overall flavor. One way to minimize the sogginess, by the way (which I didn't do in this case because I was in a hurry), is to salt the cuke slices and place them between paper towels for several minutes, to "weep" out the excess moisture.