Recipe of the week: Cucumber salad with chile, mint, and basil

A cucumber salad is often a waterlogged affair, said Yvonne Ruperti in Cook’s Illustrated. The moisture that gives cucumbers their “fresh, clean bite” steadily dilutes any dressing you put them in. Sure, you can salt the cukes to extract the liquid, but that takes upwards of an hour and leaves them wilted. A better solution: Slice the cucumbers very thin, absorb a bit of their liquid on a paper towel, and simmer the vinegar in the dressing to mellow and concentrate it. I like pairing cucumbers with bold flavors, as in the chile-flecked salad below.

Cucumber salad with chile, mint, and basil

4 cucumbers, peeled, halved lengthwise, seeded, and sliced very thin

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1/3 cup white wine vinegar

1 tbsp lime juice

1 tbsp fish sauce

2 seeded and minced Thai chiles

2 tsp vegetable oil

2 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

¼ cup chopped fresh mint leaves

¼ cup chopped fresh basil

¼ cup coarsely chopped peanuts, toasted

Evenly spread cucumber slices on paper-towel-lined baking sheet. Refrigerate while preparing dressing.

Bring vinegar to simmer in saucepan over medium-low heat; cook until reduced to 2 tbsp, 4 to 6 minutes. Transfer vinegar to bowl and set aside to cool to room temperature, about 10 minutes. Whisk in lime juice, fish sauce, chiles, oil, sugar, and salt.

When almost ready to serve, add cucumbers, mint, and basil to dressing and toss to combine. Let stand for 5 minutes; retoss, sprinkle with peanuts, and serve. Serves 4 to 6.