Ingredients
1 cucumber (about 300g)
4 tsp salt
1 tbsp finely chopped garlic
4 tsp caster sugar
2 tsp light soy sauce
4 tsp Chinkiang (brown rice) vinegar
2 tbsp chilli oil (recipe below)
a pinch or two of ground roasted Sichuan pepper (optional)
Lay the cucumber on a chopping board and smack it hard a few times with
the flat blade of a Chinese cleaver or with a rolling-pin. Then cut it
lengthways into four pieces. Hold your knife at an angle to the chopping
board and cut the cucumber on the diagonal into 4-1cm slices. Place in a
bowl with the salt, mix well and set aside for about 10 minutes.
Combine all the other ingredients in a small bowl. Drain the cucumber,
pour over the sauce, stir well and serve immediately.
Variations
A sweet-and-sour sauce for smacked cucumber
Smack,
cut and salt the cucumber as in the main recipe, but dress it with the
following seasonings: 4 tsp salt, 1 tbsp finely chopped garlic, 2 tsp
caster sugar, 2 tsp Chinkiang vinegar, 1 tsp light soy sauce and, if you
fancy a bit of heat, 2 tbsp chilli oil.
Smacked cucumber with
sesame and preserved mustard greens
For a nutty, savoury flavour, smack,
cut and salt the cucumber as in the main recipe, but dress it with the
following seasonings: 2 tbsp Sichuan preserved mustard greens (ya cai), 1
tsp finely chopped garlic, 1 tbsp runny sesame paste, 14 tsp clear rice
vinegar, 1 tsp sesame oil, and salt to taste.
HOW TO MAKE CHILLI OIL
- 1 cup plus cooking oil
- 50g Sichuanese or Korean ground chillies
- 1 teaspoon sesame seeds
- Small piece of ginger, unpeeled, crushed
Directions
-
Heat the oil over a high flame to about 400 degrees, then leave for 10 minutes to cool to around 275 degrees.
-
Place the ground chillies, sesame seeds, and
ginger in a heatproof bowl. Have a little cool oil or a cupful of water
on hand. When the oil has cooled to the right temperature, pour a little
on to the chillies; it should fizz gently but energetically and release
a rich, roasty aroma. Pour over the rest of the oil and stir. If you
think the oil is too hot and the chillies are likely to burn, simply add
a little cool oil to release the excess heat. Do, though, make sure
that the oil is hot enough: without the fizzing, it won't generate the
rich, roasty fragrance you need. If you pour all the oil on to the
chillies, then discover it's not quite hot enough, you can return the
whole lot to a saucepan and heat gently until it smells fabulous and the
color is a deep ruby red, but do take care as not to burn the chillies.
(The chillies will seethe and fizz like a witch's cauldron as you heat
them, releasing the most marvellous aromas, but can easily start to burn
and blacken.)
-
When the oil has cooled completely, decant it
and the chilli sediment into jars and store in a dark, cool place. Leave
it to settle for at least a day before using.
