Sesame-Lemon Cucumber Salad
Ingredients
- 1.5 cucumbers (medium)
- 1/2 T salt
- 2 T rice vinegar
- 1/2 T fresh lemon juice
- 1 T toasted sesame oil
- 1 t sugar
- 1 pinch crushed red pepper flakes (to taste)
- 1/2 T sesame seeds
Method
1. Peel each cucumber and halve lengthwise. Use a small spoon to remove the seeds and surrounding liquid from each cucumber half. You should have about 12 oz (340g) of cucumbers once you've done this.
2. Place the cucumber halves flat-side-down on a cutting board and slice them on the diagonal into 1/4"-thick pieces.
3. Toss the cucumbers and salt in a colander set in a bowl. Place a large zip-top bag filled with water on top of the cucumbers to weigh them down and force out the liquid. Drain for 3 hours.
4. Toast the sesame seeds in a small dry skillet over medium heat until fragrant, about 4 minutes.
5. Whisk all of the ingredients except the cucumbers in a medium bowl. Add the drained cucumbers; toss to coat. Serve chilled or at room temperature.
Notes
Notes paraphrased from source: Salting pulls out the excess water; they found that 7 Tablespoons of water came out of each 8 oz of cucumbers after salting and standing for 3 hours. This made the cucumbers crunchier, and not diluting the dressing. They found 1 tsp salt per 8 oz (1 medium) peeled & seeded cucumber the best amount of salt to use.
SJ Note 4 Mar 2012: This is a good recipe, and resulted in a well-made cucumber salad, and if you're into that sort of thing, or want to give it a try, I encourage you to try this one (or this method with a different dressing if you'd rather). The cucumbers did come out nice and crunchy, which was the point of the salting and standing. Chris quite liked the concept; he felt the oil made the cucumbers feel slimy in his mouth, though, so he didn't like the finished product. I didn't feel any sliminess (and think he's just being hypersensitive), and did like the component parts, but I think the concept just didn't work for me. Ah well, now we know where we stand on cucumber salads!