Smashed Cucumber Salad with Black Vinegar and Garlic
CANTONESE · CHINA

Smashed Cucumber Salad with Black Vinegar and Garlic

拍黄瓜Salad

Cold, jagged cucumbers cracked open so they drink up the dressing, hit with raw garlic and black vinegar. The sharpest, coolest thing on the table, ready before the rice is.

Total
15 min
Heat
2/5
Serves
4

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Flavour profile

Heat
Funk
Acid
Richness
Umami
  • Garlicky
  • Spicy
  • Sweet Sour
  • Umami

The real deal

Region
Throughout China, and a fixture of Sichuan and northern tables, where pāi huángguā opens almost every meal.
Technique
Smashing the cucumber with the flat of the blade and tearing it, so the broken edges hold the dressing instead of shedding it.
We kept
The smash-and-tear, raw garlic, black vinegar and a slick of chilli oil — no dairy, no dill, no yoghurt, no seeding out the crunch.

Ingredients

4 Serves

salad

  • 4 · cold from the fridge
  • 1 tsp

Dressing

  • 4 cloves · crushed
  • 3 tbsp
  • 1 tbsp
  • 2 tsp
  • 1½ tsp
  • 1 tbsp · optional

Garnish

  • 1 tbsp · optional
  • 2 · optional · sliced thin on the bias
  • 1 bunch · optional · leaves only

Method

  1. Lay each on the board and bring the flat of a cleaver or the bottom of a heavy pan down on it hard, once per cucumber, so it splits along its length. Pull it apart into rough 4 cm lengths with your hands — the torn, craggy faces are the whole point. Cut any piece thicker than a finger in half; leave the seeds in. Toss the smashed cucumber with 1 tsp in a colander and leave it over the sink or a bowl for 15 min. Water will bead and drip out; that water is what would otherwise dilute your dressing. Shake the colander and pat the pieces dry, but do not rinse them.

    Slicing gives you flat, watertight faces that shed the dressing. You want cracks, not neat coins.

    Skip this and the bowl turns into cucumber water within ten minutes.

  2. Crush with the flat of the knife, then chop and mash it with a pinch of into a rough paste. Raw, unapologetic garlic is the backbone here — do not cook it out.

  3. In a bowl big enough for the cucumbers, whisk 3 tbsp , 1 tbsp , 1½ tsp , 2 tsp and 1 tbsp with the garlic paste. The sugar should dissolve, not sit in grains at the bottom.

    Taste it: it should be aggressively sour, a little sweet and just shy of too salty. Chinese black vinegar is malty and gentle, so do not hold back.

  4. Add the drained cucumber to the dressing and toss with your hands so every cracked edge is coated. Let it sit for 10 min so the vinegar and garlic work their way in, then toss once more.

    It is best in the first half hour, while the cucumber is still squeaky and cold. After an hour it is still good, just softer and more pickled.

  5. Scatter over , and . Serve cold, straight from the fridge, as the first thing on the table, with the dressing pooled at the bottom for spooning over rice afterwards.

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