Smacked Cucumbers

A popular Chinese dish served as an appetizer, side dish, or snack perfect for hot days. It’s refreshing and light with a flavorful kick, and takes 20 minutes to make.

Pāi HuángGuā (拍黄瓜) in Chinese, literally translates to “smacked cucumbers”, fitting because the cucumbers are indeed smacked with the flat side of a knife (as a broken Chinese speaker, I do appreciate how literal the Chinese language is) before slicing. This loosens the center giving more surface area, so we can get as much flavor as possible out of the dressing.

We salt the cucumbers to draw out water, both to keep them more crisp, and so that water doesn’t get released later and dilute the dressing (note that if you use anything other than kosher salt, you’ll want to also lightly rinse the cucumbers, as other salts are more concentrated in sodium).

The dressing is just a combination of some very standard Chinese ingredients (that I use all the time and very much recommend having on deck) – Chinese black vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, chili oil, sugar, and garlic.

Smacked Cucumbers

thingslinadoes

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Cook TIme 20 minutes mins

Cuisine Chinese

Servings 2

Ingredients

  

• 6 persian cucumbers
• 1 tsp Kosher Salt
• 3 Medium Cloves Garlic
• 1 tbsp Chinese Black Vinegar
• 1 tsp Sugar
• 0.5 tsp Soy Sauce
• 1 tsp Sesame Oil
• 1 tbsp Chili Oil

Instructions

 

• Wash cucumbers and remove ends. If using english cucumbers, peel off some of the tough skin, and cut lengthwise. If the seeds are relatively large you can scoop some of them out (larger seeds are more bitter)
• Using a cleaver (or chef’s knife, as shown in vid) smack cucumbers, not so much to break the cucumbers, more so to loosen the center, giving more surface area to absorb flavor. Then, cut diagonally into triangular pieces
• Add to a bowl with salt, mix to coat the cucumbers, then set aside in the fridge
  1 tsp Kosher Salt
• Make the garlic into a paste by using a microplane or garlic presser. Add to a bowl, along with the rest of the ingredients (optionally reserving half of the chili oil to drizzle over as garnish)
  3 Medium Cloves Garlic, 1 tbsp Chinese Black Vinegar, 1 tsp Sugar, 0.5 tsp Soy Sauce, 1 tsp Sesame Oil, 1 tbsp Chili Oil
• Drain water from cucumbers, combine with the dressing, and serve as a side dish or as a snack on it’s own. c:

Keyword recipe, smacked cucumber