Feast from the East

I've been back from my trip to China for a week now, and I still feel like I'm getting over the jet lag!

It's an amazing place, stuffed full of history and intrigue at every turn. However, for a country whose religious population is predominantly Buddhist, China's not the great vegetarian Mecca you might think, as Chinese Buddhists happily tend to eat meat, and many vegetable dishes contain pork for flavouring. However, there were a couple of really delicious dishes that I was party to out there, and here's my recipe for one of my favourites. It's a really simple cucumber salad, where the cucumber has a very spicy tang due to marinading with chilli. Great as a pick-me-up in hot weather, this serves as the perfect accompaniment to Western and Chinese-style dishes.

Spicy cucumber and chilli salad

Ingredients:
4 dessert spoons of sesame oil
1 red chilli, sliced into rounds
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
4 small cucumbers (the short stumpy ones are best, not the large smooth ones that are most common in the UK)
2 dessert spoons cider vinegar

Method:
1. Very gently heat the oil in a saucepan with the chilli and garlic. It should not bubble or spit, but should just become slightly warm, so that you could drip it on your hand without being burned.

2. Remove from the heat and transfer to a bowl. Allow to rest until it reaches room temperature. This allows the flavours to develop.

3. When the oil has reached room temperature, add in the cider vinegar and mix. Peel the cucumber and slice into rounds. Mix with the dressing. Allow to chill in the fridge for 30 minutes, then serve.

Bulgar wheat salad

I'm not a fan of stodgy fare at the best of times, and particularly when the weather is warm and sunny. This recipe is just the kind of guilt-free, veg-filled, colourful food heaven that I like to indulge in over summer.

Serves 4-6 people

Ingredients:

200g bulgar wheat

dessertspoonful of onion pickle for popadoms (I had some left over in the fridge, but you can use one small onion, finely chopped and sprinkled with lemon juice instead)

the juice of one lemon

half a cucumber

5 ripe tomatoes (vine tomatoes are best)

one cup of garden peas

2 large carrots, grated

2 dessertspoons of spinach puree (puree is easier, but fresh spinach, finely chopped will also work)

Method:

1. In a large bowl, mix the onion pickle into the dried bulgar wheat. Add the lemon juice, then just cover with boiling water. Cover the top of the bowl with a plate to keep the steam in. The bulgar wheat will be rehydrated in about 30 minutes.

2. In the meantime, cube the cucumber, cut the tomatoes into wedges, grate the carrots, and cook your peas if you are using frozen ones

3. When the bulgar wheat is rehydrated, add the spinach, cucumber, tomato, carrots and peas, and stir gently, but thouroughly. Add salt and black pepper to taste. 

Personally, I tend to like the fresh taste of the salad 'as is', with just the lemon juice and black pepper to set off the taste of all of the fresh ingredients. However, if you prefer something with a bit more punch, then balsamic would work really well on this salad, as would a nice fruit vinegar.