Cucumber & Tomato Side Salad

My favorite side salad for a long time has been Noodles' cucumber tomato side salad. I love to get a small dish of Noodles and the salad for a meal. I have always wished you could get this salad as part of the "Trio", but the don't allow it. Since my garden is producing a TON of tomatoes and LOTS of cucumbers, this seemed like a no brainer. A few weeks ago I asked Hx if she had tried it and if she had any thoughts of what was made from. May sound silly - cucumber & tomatoes, right? Right and wrong. It's cucumber, tomatoes and red onions, but then they put a vinegar based dressing on it and sprinkle with sesame seeds and a seasoning. The vinegar was the mystery though. It wasn't red wine, it wasn't just rice  hx suggested champagne, but I couldn't find that. (I also didn't look hard).

Faced with a mountain of cucumbers I decided it was time. I opened the red wine vinegar and knew it wasn't right. The dressing was definitely a "brownish" - not red. I had the rice vinegar (I have about 4 or 5 different vinegars at any given time) and decided to get wild and crazy and mix it! It worked. I think it's pretty darn close. I decided to add just a dash of kosher salt and not add any seasoning when done - if I had to guess I would go with a paprika mix with salt. I don't really need the salt though.

So my basic receipe for this is as follows :

1 cut cucumber (halved or quartered and peeled)
4 roma tomatoes (halved or quartered)
1/2 medium red onion
a little over 1/3 cup rice vinegar
enough red wine vinegar to fill it up to 1/2 cup
1 tbs sugar (I used organic cane)

Mix the vinegars and sugar together. Pour over the veggies just prior to serving.

I haven't given up, just been busy

Have no fear! I am still cooking at home. My schedule changed yet again. I am now much more of an early bird than I ever thought I would be. For 3 days straight, I was up at 5:15 AM. My new bakery job is a blast and I love making sweets and NOT eating them. It's really fun, but tough, long work.

I feel for the owner. It's her 6th week in business and she works 3 days straight for about 16-17 hours. I honestly don't know how she does it. But the place is getting rave reviews and I am thrilled to tell people about it. I do need to learn to plan again. I need to make more use of the crock pot or find more quick, good, recipes. I am really beat in the evenings, so I don't really FEEL like cooking, but of course have to.

Anyway, inspired by my new job, I decided when I came home on Thursday I was going to just whip up something, without a recipe. At the bakery, the owner is always trying new flavors and just seeing what works. That was my inspiration.

I had my Soba Noodles.
I had all sorts of asian seasonings
It was time to try and make some sort of asian noodle dish that I REALLY liked. The recipes I have tried had way too much sesame oil. I like it, just not too much.

Here's what I made.

Sauce :

1/4 cup Tamari
3 tbsp Olive Oil
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
1tsp teriyaki sauce
grated ginger
3 tsbp rice vinegar
2 tsp black bean garlic paste

Mixed everything together. Tossed with the soba noodles (it was an 8oz) pack and some sauteed red peppers and onions. I wanted to add some green onions but some stupid grocery store was out! I had also thought of adding some lime juice, but the ginger gave it gave enough of a hint of citrus.

For the carnivores in the house, I marinated some chicken in Teriyaki sauce and then sliced it up and cooked it.

Everyone gobbled it up!