Smacked Cucumber - easy to prepare spicy side dish

Smacked cucumber is a hot asian salad made with cucumber, it's a kind of pickle. A pickle with a punch. It goes with lots of things. It's fresh and spicy hot, and very easy to make. You bash up the cucumber and break it up, then you salt it to remove some of the moisture, then you dress it. There's a bit of waiting around. Then fun eating.

Smacked Cucumber

Ingredients

• ½ cucumber (halved lengthways)

• 1 tsp sea salt flakes

• 
  

• for the dressing

• 4 Szechuan peppercorns, toasted and ground

• 1 garlic clove, crushed

• 1 tsp granulated sugar

• 2 tbsp rice vinegar

• ¼ tsp ground black pepper

• 1 tbsp soy sauce

• 1 tbsp crispy chillies in oil

• 1 tsp toasted sesame oil

topping

2 spring onions

toasted sesame seeds

Method

Wash the cucumber, cut in half lengthwise

place cucmber on a board cover with a metal spatula and thump (smack) it with the rolling pin. You might like to use the flat of your hand, but it don't. You want to crush it like this until it breaks, or cracks, then chop it roughly into smallish pieces

put the cucumber pieces in a colander and scatter the salt over them mixing the salt through - put the colander in a bowl or on a draining board to catch the drips - leave for 30 minutes

make the dressing whisking together all the other ingredients

rinse the cucumber under a running tap and shake dry - toss in a tea towel to make completely dry - put in a bowl, pour over the dressing and stir it through

finely slice the spring onions

sprinkle the cucmber mixture with the spring onions and sesame seeds and serve