Marinated Cucumber-Daikon Salad

I like side dishes that just require slicing! Well, and putting stuff in a jar and shaking. This pickly salad was a wonderful fresh, sharp counterpoint to the pork roast it was served with (coming Monday!) and deliciously crunchy. It had a good balance of sweet, spicy and salty, to boot. The only thing I couldn’t find in the megamart is a daikon, and you can use a few regular radishes instead — one daikon is about eight inches long and two inches across, so perhaps six or eight red radishes, and peel them.

Marinated Cucumber-Daikon Salad, barely adapted from Anne Burrell

1 hothouse cucumber
1 daikon
3/4 c. rice wine vinegar
1/4 c. fish sauce
2 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 Tbsp. sambal oelek (Indonesian chili paste)
1 tsp. ginger
1 clove garlic
2 scallions

Scrub the cucumber and slice it very thin with knife or mandoline. Peel the daikon, slice it in half lengthwise, and slice it to the same thickness. Dump all the slices in a bowl and toss.

In a jar, combine the rice vinegar, fish sauce, brown sugar and sambal oelek. Grate the ginger and mince the garlic and add those too. Put the lid on and shake vigorously. Pour the dressing over the cucumbers and daikon and toss, and then let them sit for about an hour on the counter. Slice the scallions thinly and sprinkle them on top to serve!

~ by iliadawry on 15 March 2013.