Mmm. I just had this with some
agadashi tofu and
rice. I had let the bottom of the pot of rice get brown and crispy and had that as another dish, loaded with
gomasio. Oh, and saké.
As I mentioned elsewhere, Japanese cucumbers are smaller and more delicate than Western varities. A reasonable substitute would be an English cucumber.
What I Had
a handful of fresh baby spinach greens from the garden
(I cleaned the pink roots and have them marinating in lime juice and sea salt for Tsukemono (Japanese Pickles) tomorrow)
1 cucumber
1 smallish daikon
fresh kombu (you can use reconsituted)
Western red radishes from the garden
a few leaves of Chinese cabbage
pine nuts
roasted sunflower seeds
sea salt, fresh white pepper
a few drops of sesame oil
2 tbsp grapeseed oil
fresh lime juice and zest
What I Did
I put the salt and freshly cracked pepper in the bottom of a wide, shallow white bowl. I put the baby spinach greens in the bowl, took care of the roots as mentioned above, put some of the lime juice in the salad bowl, had the zest put to the side.
Some birds were arguing so I went to the window to see what about.
I came back to the stainless steel work station in the kitchen. With a vegetable peeler I removed the skin from the cucumber into a bowl for the compost. Then I shaved long strips of cucumber into the salad bowl until I came to the seeds which I then added to the bowl of scraps. I did the same with the daikon.
I sliced the fresh, rinsed kombu into long thin strips around the same size as the cucumber and daikon shavings. I sliced the radishes into very thin, translucent circles. (The flavours of the daikon, a Japanese radish with the Western radish is a lot of fun.) I put both of these things into the salad bowl and stirred things around a bit with my hands.
I sliced the green leafy parts of the Chinese cabbage away from the ribs. Then I sliced the ribs into long thin sticks and put them in the salad bowl. I rolled up the leaves and sliced them into a chiffonade.
Then I tossed everything together and poured the grapeseed oil over it. I added a few drops of sesame oil. I sprinkled pine nuts and sesame seeds over the salad. Then I added the lime zest.