Cucumber salad

Apparently there has been a lot of hype in the foodie world recently about a cookbook written by the chefs at Ottolenghi, a catering place and restaurant in London. One of their store locations happens to be around the corner from my grandfather's house, and every time I visit, if we're walking home from somewhere, we'll stop for a dessert from "the caterer's".

I'm not exactly "in" with the foodie world, but, when I discovered that this place had a cookbook, the next time I visited London, I picked up a copy. Whenever I've expanded beyond their desserts, the food has been excellent, so I wanted to see how its done. Apparently, good quality ingredients and lots of fresh herbs, olive oil, and lemon - no real surprises. But I tried the first recipe from the book for a party on Saturday, a safe salad, and it was just as good as I'd hoped.



Cucumber salad
6 small salad cukes
2 mild red chilis - I believe I went with anaheim chilis
~3tbs cilantro
Some mint and basil, because I had it
1/4C veggie oil
~3tbs mixture of sesame oil and olive oil (this is all because I didn't have sunflower oil, so decided to just go wild)
1/4C rice wine vinegar
2 tbs poppy seeds
2 tbs granulated sugar
Salt and pepper to taste

Wash the cucumbers, cut off the ends, and slice them in half, and then diagonally, to make long strips. Chop the pepper, and roughly chop the herbs.

In a big bowl, mix together the oils, vinegar, sugar, and poppy seeds. Put everything together and "use your fingers to massage the flavours into the cucumbers". They recommend that if you have to let this salad sit, drain off the liquid before serving and re-season with salt and pepper before serving.