Marinated cucumbers with peanut sauce

Instructions

1. Step 1

   First, roast the peanuts. If you have two ovens, preheat one to 190°C/gas mark 5, and the other to 180°C/gas mark 4. Roast 70g of the peanuts at 190°C for 35 minutes, and 50g of the peanuts at 180°C for 20 minutes. If you have one oven, roast the peanuts one batch at a time

2. Step 2

   Top and tail the cucumbers and cut them in half lengthwise. Mix the rest of the cucumber ingredients together except the shito. Mix the cucumber with the rest of the sauces and allow to marinate for 30 minutes

3. Step 3

   To make the peanut sauce, blitz the tomato, bell pepper, chilli and half the onions together till smooth. Blitz the garlic and ginger separately

4. Step 4

   Toast the spices, then blend them in a spice grinder 

5. Step 5

   Sweat the remaining onion in the oil and add the garlic and ginger mixture. Fry off for 8 minutes, then add the pepper and tomato mixture. Cook for 15 minutes, then add the toasted and ground spices

6. Step 6

   Use a high powered blender to blend the peanuts into peanut butter. This will take a while, so be patient and keep scraping down the sides. Add the peanut butter to the sauce with half the vegetable stock. Add the dawadawa and sugar

7. Step 7

   Cook everything together for 5 minutes, then add the rest of the stock and cook for a further 45 minutes or until the oil separates on top of the sauce. Pass the sauce through a sieve and adjust the seasoning to taste

8. Step 8

   Preheat the grill

9. Step 9

   Grill the cucumber for 10 minutes, turning constantly

10. Step 10

    To serve, add some peanut sauce to a plate. Add the cucumber on top of the peanut sauce, and then top it with shito sauce. Sprinkle the chives over the top of the cucumber