Spicy cucumber pickles
Spicy cucumber pickles
These pickles add colour, crunch and punch to any meal and would be good in bento boxes too.
For this recipe, you’ll need a pestle and mortar for grinding the sesame seeds. I recommend buying a suribachi (Japanese pestle and mortar) which has a ridged surface that’s perfect for this.
Summer | Serves 4
1 cucumber
1 teaspoon salt
For the pickling liquid:
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons caster sugar
1 tablespoon untoasted sesame oil
¼ teaspoon toasted sesame oil
1 5cm piece of kombu
1 tablespoon lightly ground toasted white sesame seeds
1 red chilli seeds removed and finely chopped
Trim and peel the cucumber, halve lengthways and scoop out all the seeds. Sprinkle over the salt and gently rub in. Leave for 5 minutes.
In a bowl combine all the pickling ingredients.
Rinse the cucumber and cut into small bite-size chunks. Squeeze out any excess water.
Add the cucumber to the pickling liquid and leave for several hours or overnight.
Serve a few pieces on individual small plates.
