This is a fun summer salad when cucumbers are growing abundantly in your garden! Get creative with different fillings.
Cucumber Thimbles with Crab and a Mango Salsa
Serves 6-8
1 cup fresh crab (may also use bay shrimp)
2-3 English cucumbers, peeled and cut
into 11⁄2-inch lengths
Finely chopped mint or chives for garnish,
if desired
Mango Salsa:
1 ripe mango, diced into small pieces
1⁄2 cup roasted red pepper, diced (see morsel)
1⁄4 cup red onion, very finely diced
1⁄4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1⁄2 teaspoon paprika
1⁄4 teaspoon coriander
1⁄4 teaspoon sea salt
1⁄4 teaspoon finely ground black pepper
MANGO SALSA:
Combine all ingredients, except crab and cucumber. Mix thoroughly, and refrigerate for at least one hour. This can be made one day ahead.
TO PREPARE APPETIZER:
Cut peeled cucumber into lengths of about 1 1⁄2 inches. One cucumber yields three to four thimbles. Using a melon baller, carefully remove the seeds from the center of each piece of cucumber, creating a cylinder or thimble, as I like to call it. Stand each cucumber on its end in the center of individual serving plates. Salt and pepper the inside of each.
Fill with enough crab so that it comes out of the top a bit. Circle the thimble with three to four tablespoons of salsa, and then drizzle a bit of the salsa liquid on the top of the crab. Sprinkle chopped mint or chives over the top, if desired.
Preheat broiler. Wash and dry pepper(s). Place in a frying pan. Broil on bottom shelf, furthest from heat. Check every one to two minutes, turning as each side blackens. Remove from oven, and cover with foil or place in a paper bag for about twenty minutes. When cool enough to handle, remove outer skin. Cut as recipe directs, discarding seeds. Do not rinse at any time as this will greatly lessen the delicious flavor.
