Japanese Cucumber Salad

A nice marinated salad. Very authentic tasting. Use a light soy sauce, not dark, for a more delicate flavor. The seaweed in this dish is optional. I usually make it without. The prep time includes the time to soak the seaweed. If you omit the seaweed, prep time goes down to 10 minutes. This is from the book Japanese Cuisine for Everyone from the Quick and Easy series. I got this book 20 years ago, but saw it for sale in an upscale Japanese store just the other day.

• Ready In: 30 mins
• Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 1 1⁄2 ounces  dried  wakame seaweed
• 2  asian cucumbers (or other seedless cucumber)
• 4  teaspoons  toasted  white sesame seeds
• 2⁄3 cup cold water
• 1  teaspoon salt
• 1⁄3 cup rice vinegar
• 3⁄4 teaspoon soy sauce
• 1 1⁄2 tablespoons sugar
• 1⁄4 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Mix the sauce ingredients together: rice vinegar, soy sauce, sugar and 1/4 tsp salt.
2. Soak seaweed (if using) in cold water for 20 minutes. Remove hard parts, if any. Chop coarsely. Rinse in hot water then blanch in cold water. Drain and squeeze.
3. Peel cucumber, if waxed. Cut length-wise into match shaped pieces. Soak in the 2/3 c cold salted water a few minutes. Drain and squeeze.
4. Toss cucumber and seaweed in a small bowl with sauce. Serve garnished with sesame seeds.