cucumber & hijiki salsa

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This recipe is based on one from Peter Berley’s Modern Vegetarian Kitchen. I’m still looking for ways to use these gorgeous cucumbers from the market, and this is a really fun, usual one with the addition of the sea vegetable, hijiki! It doesn’t taste weird, though—just yummy! The Asian ingredients with the Southwestern ones really makes a great combination! I love to serve this with gingery refried black beans, which also has that combination of fresh ginger and Southwestern spices (recipe follows). You could accompany them with crispy corn tortillas (just bake them in a 350-degree oven for 15 minutes) or a slice of our toasted golden maize bread.
Hijiki is a sea vegetable (OK, usually we call it seaweed), and is sometimes spelled “hiziki.” You can find it at Sagaya, or at Natural Pantry.  Two tablespoons doesn’t look like very much, but when you simmer the dried hijiki, it expands quite a bit. If you happen to have another sea vegetable in your pantry, called arame, you can use that instead, if you like. It’s quicker to cook, though—just simmer it for about 10 minutes before draining, cooling, and chopping. Now if we only had an Alaskan source for sea vegetables! Does anyone know of one?
If you only have red onions, just omit the scallions and use more red onion (or vice versa).

2 tablespoons hijiki
2 cups seeded, and finely chopped English cucumbers
4 scallions, trimmed and finely sliced
¼ cup finely diced red onion
2 teaspoons peeled and VERY finely chopped ginger root
1 jalapeno chile, seeded and finely chopped
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 teaspoons sugar
coarse sea salt or kosher salt

1. Combine hijiki and 2 cups of water in a pan. Bring to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes. Drain the hiziki in a strainer and cool under cold running water. Drain well, coarsely chop, and transfer to a bowl.
2. Add the cucumber, scallion, onion, ginger, jalapeno chile, vinegar, sugar, and 2 teaspoons salt.  Set the salsa aside to marinate for 30 minutes in the fridge.
3. Taste for seasoning and add more salt or vinegar to taste.