Cucumbers- for a vegetable made of mostly water, they still manage to divide people on their flavor and texture. This cucumber relish is not a very gentle introduction to the marvelous world of cukes- this is a salad of cucumbers, some spice, and some more cucumbers (oh yeah, and we might have a chile or two in there too).

This relish is slightly sweet with a touch of brown sugar, but it cuts through that sweetness with a splash of acidity from the Apple Cider Vinegar. The afore-mentioned chiles that we were talking about earlier are Tien-Tsin chiles, a small red chile that packs a bit of punch. Because they are left whole they can be broken up at your discretion (thus releasing their capsaicin) so you can have some control over your spicy factor- though if you’re going to pair heat with some vegetables, cucumbers seems especially non-intimidating. Chef Jeff used an English or “Hothouse” cucumber for our relish because of it’s minimum amount of prep, but if you wanted to use a fatter, regular cucumber, we’d recommend peeling off the waxy skins and scraping out the seeds if they’re particularly large as they’ll be chewy and barely edible.

We paired this relish with our Satay Chicken Skewers and spicy peanut sauce, but this would also be delicious dolloped on some tilapia tostadas!

Makes 4 servings.