Chicken With Cucumber In Sesame Sauce

8 chicken fillets (boned, skinless breasts)
2 spring onions
2 slices root ginger, peeled
750 ml/11/4 pints water
2 small cucumbers
Sesame sauce:
1 teaspoon finely chopped spring onion
2 tablespoons sesame paste or crunchy peanut
butter
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
3 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon chilli oil (or 1 teaspoon peanut oil
with a dash of Tabasco)
Garnish:
spring onion tassels
salad hornet

Place the chicken fillets in a saucepan with the spring onions, ginger and water. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat, cover the pan and simmer gently for 6 minutes. Allow to cool in the stock, then remove and cut into matchstick strips.

Peel the cucumbers, leaving a few strips of green skin for colour, then halve them and scoop out the seeds with a teaspoon. Cut the cucumber into strips the same size as the chicken. Cover the chicken and cucumber with plastic wrap and refrigerate until needed.

Place all the ingredients for the sesame sauce in a small bowl and mix well to combine. Arrange the chicken on one side of a dish, and the cucumber next to it. Garnish with spring onion tassels and salad bumet. (To prepare the spring onions, trim the ends and finely shred the green ends. Leave in iced water for 1 hour to allow them to open.) just before serving, spoon a little sauce over the chicken and cucumber.

SERVES 4