Bashed Cucumber & Radish Salad

 

 

This Bashed Cucumber & Radish Salad was simple to do but very tasty.

 

Ingredients:

 

English cucumber

Radishes

Rice wine vinegar – 2 tsp

Salt 1 tsp

Sugar 2 tsp

Grated ginger 1 tsp

Sesame oil/Garlic oil

Black sesame seeds (I didn't have any so left them out)

 

Method:

 

Put the vinegar, salt, sugar and ginger into a bowl and mix.

 

Peel the cucumber long ways but in alternating stripes.  Halve the cucumber and scoop out the seeds with a spoon.  Chop into largish pieces.

 

Bash the cucumber firmly but not too hard on the cut side– the pieces will split.  Beware of pieces flying out onto the floor – and no, I didn't put them back.

 

Add the bashed cucumber to the bowl of dressing.  Stir and leave it in the fridge for at least 20 minutes.

 

After that there will be more dressing because of the water drawn out of the cucumber.  Add halved radishes and a teaspoon full of sesame oil/ mixed with a little garlic oil.  Mix it all together.

 

I didn't have any black sesame seeds so I just popped a dill frond on top.

Lady Sandwiches – Aimed for Dainty (never really achieved)

The intention was to make these cucumber sandwiches dainty and ladylike.  An old family friend of ours, sadly now departed, used to make the most delicate cucumber sandwiches whenever we visited.  As you can see mine are not particularly delicate.  But I tried.

You just thinly butter some slices of white bread with your choice of spread.  (This is the only time I use white bread)

Then put a thin layer of thinly sliced cucumber on every second slice of bread.  It is important to peel the cucumber to get the right consistency.  Then sprinkle on salt and white pepper.  Pop the other slice of bread on top and press down a bit.

Cut off the crusts and then quarter each sandwich.  And if you manage to be more delicate than me you will have lovely tiny cucumber bites that are lovely and refreshing.

If you are preparing this a little ahead of time, keep the sandwiches cool in the fridge with a dampened tea towel over them (not plastic wrap).

Sautéed Cucumber – There's a First Time For Everything!

I got this idea from Love Your Leftovers – a River Cottage cookbook.  It turned out ok but a bit weird – I still think of cucumber as a raw salad veg.

Ingredients:

Cucumber

Butter/oil

Chopped herbs (I substituted a few chopped spinach leaves)

1-2 tablespoons of crème fraiche

Salt and pepper

Method:

Peel the cucumber

Halve it lengthwise and scope out the seeds with a teaspoon

Cut into chunks (say 1/3 of an inch wide)

Heat a little oil with a generous knob of butter until it is frothing.

Fry the cucumber (sprinkled with a little salt) for 5 minutes of so until a little golden.

Add the chopped spinach and the crème fraiche.  Stir together and season well with salt and pepper.

Daikon & Cucumber Salad – lovely crunch!

I have seen what I now know as Daikon in the greengrocer but have never used before.  For some reason I thought it was a sort of swede.  Actually, it's a radish used very extensively in Japanese dishes.

I found this simple recipe for a salad and gave it a go.  It was refreshing, crunchy and peppery.

What I used – 1/3 of a daikon, cucumber, fish sauce (you could just use salt), vinaigrette dressing plus a small amount of chopped red chilli for colour.

Just slice up the radish and cucumber however you like (next time I might do it in strips with a vegetable peeler).  Marinate it in the fridge for at least a couple of hours to let the flavour develop and meld.

Salmon and Bacon Salad with Egg Horseradish Sauce

I only decided to post about this one when I had finished making this salad.  So the presentation is a bit ordinary but the taste was good.

Ingredients:

For the salad:

Smoked salmon – a peppered piece

6-8 rashers of bacon

Radishes

Cherry Tomatoes (heirloom)

Small avocado

Cucumber

Dill

Salt and Pepper

Lemon juice

For the sauce:

1 lightly hard-boiled egg

Gherkin

Horseradish – grated

Salt and Pepper

Bacon fat

Cream

Lemon juice

Method:

Fry off the bacon.  When done cut it up into bite sized pieces.

Cut up the radishes, cherry tomatoes and cucumber and put them onto your salad plate.

Cut your avocado in half and take the stone out with a spoon – I try not to use a knife for this ever since I heard about the very large number of injuries caused!  A spoon works just find – I use a tablespoon measuring spoon.  I then cut the avocado into quarters leaving the skin on.  It exposes less flesh to the air and so you don't need to add as much lemon juice to stop it browning.  And when you eat the salad it is quite easy just to cut the flesh off the skin with your knife and then eat it.

Roughly chop your dill and scatter it on.

I then made the sauce (so that I could use the same knife for cutting the bacon and salmon later).  The sauce was mashed up egg, horseradish sauce, lemon juice, chopped gherkin, salt and pepper and lastly a little splash of cream to loosen it up.

Then onto cutting up the bacon – and then added the bacon fat from the pan into the sauce.

Finally flaking the smoked salmon.  Season the salad to your liking.

Next time I would be confident enough to drizzle the sauce over the salad but I just wasn't sure enough that it would work.  It did.