The cucumber craziness
We’ve been enjoying these warm, sunny days between garden tending and new furniture installing – I’ve become a happy owner of a spacious working table! We’re making a few changes in the living room which will give it a much fresher look, hopefully gaining some space, too.
Have you ever tried cucumber water? It's a nice alternative to plain water and the cucumber aroma is sooo refreshing!
However, what I wanted to tell you today has to do with our extensive crop of cucumbers – which still continue to grow like crazy, and definitely faster than we can eat them. While I still stubbornly prefer to eat them in their raw state, I was forced to find another tasty solution to use them – stir-fried with chicken and basmati rice on the side. Nothing particularly special, yet the outcome is more than lovely and quite suitable with the weather, too.
The addition of ginger, rice vinegar and curry spice mix lend this dish some Asian touch, and if you’re not so enthusiastic about meat in your meals, you can simply leave the chicken out and still have yourself a nutritious vegetarian plate. Perfect for tonight’s dinner, if you will!
VEGETABLE AND CHICKEN STIR-FRY
*for 2 people*
1 cucumber, washed (unpeeled, if possible) and thinly sliced
1 small zucchino, washed (unpeeled) and thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 small onion, sliced
1/2 red bell pepper, sliced
2 tomatoes, chopped and mixed with blender into puree
150g chicken breast, chopped into cubes or as you will
1 Tbsp rice (or chickpea) flour
freshly ground pepper
sea salt or a few tablespoons soy sauce
1 tsp or so good quality curry spice mix
a couple of tablespoons rice vinegar, or according to your taste
sesame oil
a piece of ginger (2cm), peeled and grated
1 tsp ground sweet paprika
fresh basil leaves or parsley, chopped, for decoration
200g cooked basmati rice, for serving
1. Place the cucumber and zucchini slices on a plate, sprinkle with a little salt, ground pepper, chopped garlic and some rice vinegar and transfer to the fridge. Let marinate for half an hour or so, covered.
2. Roll the chicken slices in the rice flour to evenly coat them, and set aside.
3. Heat some sesame oil in a wok or similar, and just before it starts burning, add the chicken slices. Stir-fry on all sides and transfer to a plate.
4. Adding more sesame oil to the wok, stir-fry the vegetables (the marinated cucumber and zucchini, sliced onion, red pepper) and sprinkle them with grated ginger, sweet paprika and curry spice mix. Add the tomato puree and rice vinegar according to your taste, and season with salt or soy sauce.
5. As the vegetables are almost done (2 mins no more, we don’t want them mushy), return the chicken to the wok, stir to combine and check the seasoning again.
6. Serve over cooked basmati, sprinkled with coarsely chopped basil or parsley.
This recipe is more than flexible and can be modified according to your taste/ingredient availability. For example, you can mix soy sauce with a little honey or cane sugar in order to give the dish a little sour-sweet kick. Or you can bathe the chicken in flour AND scrambled egg, or even cook an egg omelette, chop it and add to the ingredients once they are cooked. I’ve tried all these versions and liked each one of them!
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