Living in Vancouver is a blessing as we are surrounded by a wonderfully diverse and rich food culture, built by different immigrant communities in the city and surrounding neighbourhoods. One particular cuisine that I love and am grateful to have access to is Sichuan cuisine. A style of Chinese cuisine originating in the Sichuan province, it’s generally spicy and a bold mix of garlic and hot chili peppers.
Today’s recipe is a Sichuan style cucumber pickle and based on a recipe by Fuchsia Dunlop. It’s quick and calls for cucumbers, garlic, Chinese chili oil, rice vinegar, and soy sauce. It’s spicy, garlicky, and full of vinegar sass. Best as a side dish with dumplings, noodles or wonton party time.
Serves: 2-3
Cooks in: 30 min
INGREDIENTS
1 large cucumber
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp granulated sugar
2-3 cloves of garlic, diced or minced
Couple of pinches of ground Sichuan peppers or black peppercorns
3 tbsp rice vinegar
1-2 tbsp soy sauce
2 glugs of chilli oil. Traditionally this dish uses Chinese Chili Oil but if you don’t have any, I make my own by stuffing dried red chillis like bird’s eye chilis or peperoncini chilis in olive oil or grapeseed oil and letting this sit for a month.
INSTRUCTIONS
Place the cucumber on a cutting board, smash and spank it with a rolling pan, a bat, your fist or the back of your knife. You want the cucumber to split and break.
Chop this mess into bite-size chunks. (If you don’t feel like giving a vegetable a spank, then just roughly chop the cucumber into small chunks.)
Throw in a bowl, sprinkle with salt, toss and then set aside for 30 or so minutes. After 30 min, drain the cucumbers in a colander and then place back into the original bowl.
In a separate bowl, mix together garlic, vinegar, sugar, soya sauce, chilli oil and pepper.
Drizzle this saucy sauce over the cucumbers and eat right away.
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