Rosie Mackean’s quick and easy recipe for cucumber rice with fudgy eggs
When cooking on a weeknight, it’s easy to forget that sometimes experimenting with temperature is as important as flavour.
Ingredients · Servings 2
- 200g Japanese short-grain rice
- Salt and black pepper
- 2 medium eggs
- 40g soft salted butter
- 3 spring onions trimmed and finely sliced
- 200g baby cucumbers or the same quantity of a large cucumber
- 1tsp flaky sea salt
- 3tbsp caster sugar
- 75g white-wine vinegar
- 1tbsp olive oil
- 1small handful fresh dill leaves picked and chopped
- 0.5tsp dried mint
- 1 large cucumber peeled and deseeded
- 100g creme fraiche
- 1very generous pinch flaky salt
- 1 garlic clove peeled
- 1ice cube 1 ice cube
Method · 40 min
- Start with the pickles.
- Slice the cucumber into rounds, put them in a heatproof bowl, add the salt and toss to coat.
- In a second heatproof bowl, mix 75 ml just-boiled water with the sugar and vinegar, then pour this over the cucumber and set aside while you make everything else.
- Wash the rice under cold water until it runs clear, then drain.
- If you have a rice cooker, use that.
- Otherwise, put the rice in a saucepan with a tight-fitting lid and add 250 ml cold water and a pinch of salt.
- Put the pan on a medium heat, bring it to a boil, then turn down the heat as low as possible and cover the pan with the lid.
- Leave the rice to cook for eight minutes, then take off the heat, and set aside, still covered, for 10 minutes, so it absorbs all the water.
- Meanwhile, blitz the peeled and deseeded cucumber in a blender with the creme fraiche, salt and garlic, until smooth.
- Transfer to the fridge with the ice cube to keep it lovely and cool.
- Cook the eggs in boiling water for seven minutes, then rinse under cold running water until they're just cool enough to peel.
- Dress the pickled cucumber with the olive oil, dill and dried mint.
- Pile spoonfuls of the rice into the centre of 2 wide, shallow bowls, then dot with the soft butter – it will melt and pool in the rice (heaven).
- Pour the cucumber sauce around the rice, top with the pickles, the peeled and halved fudgy eggs, and some shredded spring onion, then serve with plenty of salt and pepper on the eggs.
Cucumber rice with fudgy eggs
For the pickled cucumbers 200g baby cucumbers, or the same quantity of a large cucumber 1 tsp flaky sea salt.
white-wine vinegar 1 tbsp olive oil 1 small handful
For the cucumber sauce 1 large cucumber, peeled and deseeded 100g creme fraiche 1 very generous pinch flaky salt.
- Good Time Cooking: Show-Stopping Menus for Easy Entertaining, by Rosie Mackean, is published by Pavilion Books at £26. To order a copy for £23.40, visit guardianbookshop.com.
