Marinated cucumbers with peanut sauce
- Side
- 4
- 2 hours 30 minutes
This cucumber side dish with peanut sauce from Adejoké Bakare is a brilliant introduction to West African spices - like prekese and uda pods - and spicy and savoury shito sauce. Using fresh spices is key, so try and source the highest quality ingredients you can. Joké uses African cucumbers, but English cucumbers work as well.
Ingredients
Metric
Imperial
Marinated cucumbers
- 3 cucumbers, African cucumbers are best
- 2 tbsp of lemon juice
- 1 tbsp of ginger paste
- 1 tbsp of garlic paste
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp of vegetable oil
- shito sauce
Peanut sauce
- 120g of peanuts
- 80g of tomatoes
- 30g of bell pepper
- 20g of Cameroonian chilli, or 1 Scotch bonnet chilli
- 50g of onion, diced
- 4g of garlic cloves
- 8g of fresh ginger, peeled
- 5g of anise seeds
- 15g of uda pods, deseeded
- 8g of prekese (Aidan fruit), crushed
- 5g of cloves
- 100ml of vegetable oil
- 500ml of vegetable stock
- 50g of dawadawa, ground
- 100g of unrefined caster sugar
- 1 handful of fresh chives, very finely chopped
Equipment
- High-power blender
- Spice grinder
Method
First, roast the peanuts. If you have two ovens, preheat one to 190°C/gas mark 5, and the other to 180°C/gas mark 4. Roast 70g of the peanuts at 190°C for 35 minutes, and 50g of the peanuts at 180°C for 20 minutes. If you have one oven, roast the peanuts one batch at a time
- 120g of peanuts
Top and tail the cucumbers and cut them in half lengthwise. Mix the rest of the cucumber ingredients together except the shito. Mix the cucumber with the rest of the sauces and allow to marinate for 30 minutes
- 3 cucumbers, African cucumbers are best
- 2 tbsp of lemon juice
- 1 tbsp of ginger paste
- 1 tbsp of garlic paste
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp of vegetable oil
To make the peanut sauce, blitz the tomato, bell pepper, chilli and half the onions together till smooth. Blitz the garlic and ginger separately
- 80g of tomatoes
- 30g of bell pepper
- 20g of Cameroonian chilli, or 1 Scotch bonnet chilli
- 25g of onion, diced
- 4g of garlic cloves
- 8g of fresh ginger, peeled
Toast the spices, then blend them in a spice grinder
- 5g of anise seeds
- 15g of uda pods, deseeded
- 8g of prekese (Aidan fruit), crushed
- 5g of cloves
Sweat the remaining onion in the oil and add the garlic and ginger mixture. Fry off for 8 minutes, then add the pepper and tomato mixture. Cook for 15 minutes, then add the toasted and ground spices
- 100ml of vegetable oil
- 25g of onion, diced
Use a high powered blender to blend the peanuts into peanut butter. This will take a while, so be patient and keep scraping down the sides. Add the peanut butter to the sauce with half the vegetable stock. Add the dawadawa and sugar
- 500ml of vegetable stock
- 50g of dawadawa, ground
- 100g of unrefined caster sugar
Cook everything together for 5 minutes, then add the rest of the stock and cook for a further 45 minutes or until the oil separates on top of the sauce. Pass the sauce through a sieve and adjust the seasoning to taste
Preheat the grill
Grill the cucumber for 10 minutes, turning constantly
To serve, add some peanut sauce to a plate. Add the cucumber on top of the peanut sauce, and then top it with shito sauce. Sprinkle the chives over the top of the cucumber
- shito sauce
- 1 handful of fresh chives, very finely chopped
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