For company
Cucumber with creamy peanut-ginger sauce
I adore cucumber — I could eat it with nothing but a little cracked sea salt — but this is a little different, more elevated, and just yum. Ribbons of cucumber under a thick, creamy peanut-ginger sauce, finished with extra salted peanuts and avocado.
Add the water one tablespoon at a time until the sauce is smooth and spoonable (is that a word? I've decided it is). And I would definitely add avocado to the dish — it turns a lovely side into a meal.
Method
- 01
Blend the peanuts, ginger, silken tofu, yoghurt, garlic and soy sauce until smooth and creamy.
- 02
Blend in the water, adding it 1 tablespoon at a time, until the sauce is smooth and spoonable. Taste and add a little more soy sauce if necessary.
- 03
Slice the cucumbers into long ribbons — a peeler run down the length works beautifully. Sprinkle them lightly with the fine sea salt and allow them to stand for 5 minutes.
- 04
Drain away the excess liquid the salt has drawn out, then arrange the ribbons on a lovely wooden serving platter.
- 05
Spoon the peanut-ginger sauce over the cucumbers, tuck the avocado slices in alongside, and finish with extra chopped peanuts on top.
In the glass
Amari Lush Cap Classique
Cass's choice is Amari Lush — a South African Méthode Cap Classique, a demi-sec built on Chardonnay with a hint of honey rounding it off. That soft honeyed sweetness and the fine, creamy bubbles are exactly what a salty peanut-and-ginger sauce needs: the fizz lifts the yoghurt and the honey answers the soy, without the wine turning bitter against the raw cucumber. Amari means strength in Yoruba, and the wine is made with strength of friendship in mind — a 100% black-owned South African brand, so it belongs on the table with the people you love. Serve it properly cold.
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