Charred Cucumber Salad With Compressed Nectarine, Tomatoes & Ice Lettuce
Serves 4
This recipe was developed by the San Francisco Cooking School 2015 part-time culinary class after a visit to Peter Jacobsen’s farm in Yountville. One of the products Jacobsen grows for local chefs is ice lettuce, a succulent with thick leaves reminiscent of citrus. He gave one of the students some seedlings and she cultivated her own crop at home, which the class used for this dish. If you can’t get your hands on ice lettuce, purslane (or a combination of purslane and baby arugula) is a good substitute. Any dense cucumber will work here, like Armenian or Persian. If you don’t have a vacuum sealer to compress the nectarine, simply marinate the fruit in the dressing.
Dressing
¼ cup chopped mint ¼ cup chopped cilantro Juice from 3 limes ½ cup extra virgin olive oil Scant teaspoon honey Kosher salt and ground black pepper 1 nectarine, sliced
Salad
2 small Korean cucumbers, roll cut into 1-inch pieces 2 small Japanese cucumbers, roll cut into 1-inch pieces 1 heirloom tomato, cut into chunks (about 1½ cups total) ½ pint cherry tomatoes, halved 10 to 15 ice lettuce or purslane leaves
To make the dressing and compressed nectarine: Combine the mint, cilantro, lime juice, olive oil and honey in a small bowl. Mix well and season assertively with salt and pepper.
Toss the nectarine with 2 tablespoons of the dressing in a small bowl. Either vacuum seal and let rest or marinate for 1 hour.
To finish the salad: Roll cut the cucumbers by cutting one at an angle 1-inch thick, roll, then cut again so that you have irregularly cut 1-inch pieces.
Heat a dry cast-iron skillet over medium heat. Char the cut sides of the cucumbers until just a few spots of golden brown emerge. Cool to room temperature.
Arrange the nectarines, cucumbers, tomatoes and ice lettuce leaves on each serving plate and drizzle a generous amount of the dressing on top. Finish with a grind of fresh black pepper and serve.