🥒 Smashed Cucumbers: Your new favorite salad! (拍黃瓜)

Summary

In this video, you'll learn a quick 10-minute recipe for a flavorful Smashed Cucumber Salad, complete with subtle cooking tips to enhance your culinary skills. The recipe focuses on selecting the right cucumbers, peeling in alternating stripes for texture, and smashing them to allow better seasoning absorption. It also includes a zesty sauce made with chili sauce, soy sauce, and vinegar, and optional garnishes like bell pepper and cilantro. The video promises a crunchy, zesty salad that's perfect for refreshing your palate.

Takeaways

• 🍽️ Add a 10-minute recipe to your cooking skills: Smashed Cucumber Salad.
• 👨‍🍳 Improve your culinary techniques with subtle tips throughout the recipe.
• 🥒 Start with selecting the right cucumbers: slender and bumpy-skinned for the best texture.
• 🔪 Cut cucumbers in a specific way to enhance flavor and reduce wateriness.
• 🌿 Peel cucumbers in alternating stripes for a better taste and texture.
• 🚫 Avoid overly mature cucumbers with large seeds in the core.
• 🍴 Smash cucumbers with a cleaver to allow seasonings to penetrate better.
• 🧂 Use salt and sugar to draw out moisture from cucumbers for better flavor absorption.
• 🥗 Include bell peppers and green onions for color and taste enhancement.
• 🌶️ Create a balanced sauce that is sour, sweet, spicy, and salty for the perfect dressing.
• 🌿 Optional: Add cilantro for an extra flavor twist, but it can be omitted if not preferred.

Q & A

What are the two reasons to watch the video mentioned in the script?

The two reasons are to learn a new 10-minute recipe for Smashed Cucumber Salad and to gain subtle tips and techniques that can improve your cooking skills.

How should cucumbers be washed and cut according to the video?

Cucumbers should be washed first, then cut by trimming off the ends, peeling them in alternating stripes, and cutting them in half lengthwise. Optionally, some of the core can be removed to reduce wateriness.

What type of cucumbers are recommended for the recipe?

Slender English cucumbers with thinner peels are preferred for their softer texture and better taste. Short cucumbers are also acceptable if peeled, and they offer a crunchier texture.

Why should cucumbers have bumpy peels instead of smooth ones?

Cucumbers with bumpy peels are often fresher and less mature compared to those with smooth peels.

Why is it important to remove the core of the cucumber?

Removing the core helps to reduce the wateriness of the cucumber, which prevents the seasoning from being diluted and maintains the flavor.

What is the difference between smashing and chopping cucumbers for this recipe?

Smashing loosens up the cucumber's texture, allowing seasonings to penetrate better and resulting in a better flavor and texture compared to chopped cucumbers.

What tools can be used to smash the cucumbers if a cleaver is not available?

If a cleaver is not available, a heavy object like a meat tenderizer or rolling pin can be used to smash the cucumbers.

How long should the cucumbers be salted and sugared before adding the sauce?

The cucumbers should be salted and sugared for about 30 minutes to draw out moisture, which helps the seasonings penetrate better.

What is the purpose of adding red bell pepper to the salad?

Red bell pepper is added for a pop of color and for its sweet taste, although the amount used is minimal.

What are the key flavors that the sauce for Smashed Cucumber Salad should have?

The sauce should be sour, sweet, spicy, and salty, with adjustments possible based on personal preference.

How can the crunchiness of the cucumber be maintained in the final salad?

The crunchiness of the cucumber is maintained by marinating it with vinegar, which helps to preserve its texture.

Outlines

00:00

🥒 Preparing the Cucumbers for Smashed Cucumber Salad

This paragraph introduces the recipe for Smashed Cucumber Salad and provides tips on selecting and preparing cucumbers. The narrator explains the importance of using slender, not overly thick cucumbers with bumpy peels for better taste and texture. The process of cutting the cucumbers is detailed, including trimming the ends, peeling in alternating stripes for a visually appealing and less tough skin, and removing the core to reduce wateriness. The narrator also answers a question about the importance of removing seeds to prevent the salad from becoming too watery. The technique of smashing the cucumbers with a cleaver is emphasized to allow seasonings to penetrate better than simple chopping. The paragraph concludes with advice on adjusting the cutting angle for longer cucumber pieces and mentions a masterclass on Chinese knife techniques.

05:01

🍽️ Making the Sauce and Finalizing the Salad

The second paragraph focuses on the preparation of the sauce and the final steps of making the Smashed Cucumber Salad. It starts with marinating the cucumbers with salt and sugar to draw out moisture and enhance flavor absorption. The narrator discusses the importance of not over-salting to retain the cucumber's natural taste. The preparation of garlic paste is detailed, including peeling and smashing the cloves. The sauce is then made with chili sauce, light soy sauce, oyster sauce, vinegar, and sugar, with adjustments suggested based on personal taste preferences. The paragraph also covers the addition of garnishes like red bell pepper, green onions, and cilantro. The role of vinegar in maintaining the crunchiness of the cucumber is explained. Finally, the salad is mixed, adding cilantro, sesame seeds, and oils for a finishing touch before serving.

10:02

🎬 Wrapping Up the Video

The final paragraph of the script is a call to action for viewers to subscribe and give the video a thumbs up. It includes a playful interaction, presumably with a child, to encourage engagement with the content. The paragraph serves as a light-hearted conclusion to the video, reminding viewers to show their support and interest in the recipe and the channel.

Keywords

💡Zesty

Zesty refers to a lively, sharp, and tangy flavor, often associated with citrus fruits or spicy ingredients. In the context of the video, 'zesty' describes the taste of the Smashed Cucumber Salad, suggesting that it has a refreshing and lively flavor profile. The script mentions the salad as 'zesty' to highlight the use of ingredients that contribute to this taste, such as vinegar and chili sauce.

💡Crunchy

Crunchy is a texture descriptor that refers to food that is firm and makes a crisp sound when chewed. The video emphasizes the importance of achieving a crunchy texture in the cucumber salad. This is achieved by peeling the cucumber in an alternating pattern and smashing it, which helps to maintain the cucumber's firmness and prevent it from becoming soggy.

💡Smashed Cucumber Salad

Smashed Cucumber Salad, or 'paak wong gwa' in Cantonese, is the main dish featured in the video. It is characterized by cucumbers that are smashed and seasoned to create a zesty, crunchy salad. The term is central to the video's theme as it not only names the dish but also describes the method of preparation, which involves smashing the cucumbers to enhance the flavor and texture.

💡Cucumber Peeling

Cucumber peeling is a technique mentioned in the script where the cucumber's skin is partially removed in an alternating pattern. This is done to enhance the visual appeal and make the cucumber less tough to eat. It's a specific technique that contributes to the final texture and taste of the Smashed Cucumber Salad.

💡English Cucumber

English cucumbers are a type of cucumber with thinner skins and fewer seeds, preferred for their tenderness and taste. The video suggests using English cucumbers for the salad, indicating a preference for their superior texture and flavor compared to regular cucumbers.

💡Cucumber Seeds

Cucumber seeds are mentioned in the context of removing them to reduce the water content of the cucumber. This step is crucial as it prevents the salad from becoming too watery, which would dilute the flavors of the seasonings. Removing the seeds is a strategic move to enhance the salad's overall taste.

💡Smashing

Smashing is a technique used to break down the density of the cucumber, allowing seasonings to penetrate better. The video script describes smashing the cucumber with a cleaver, which is a method to loosen the cucumber's texture and improve the absorption of flavors.

💡Marinating

Marinating is the process of soaking food in a seasoned liquid to enhance its flavor. In the video, cucumbers are marinated with salt and sugar to draw out moisture, which helps the seasonings to penetrate more effectively and results in a better-textured salad.

💡Hoi Wai

Hoi Wai is a Cantonese term that refers to foods that stimulate the appetite. The video describes the Smashed Cucumber Salad as hoi wai, indicating that it is meant to be an appetizer that wakes up the palate with its tangy and spicy flavors.

💡Sauce

The sauce for the Smashed Cucumber Salad is a mixture of chili sauce, soy sauce, oyster sauce, vinegar, and sugar. It is described as needing to be sour, sweet, spicy, and salty. The sauce is a key element of the dish, providing the necessary flavors that complement the cucumber's crunch and zesty nature.

💡Cilantro

Cilantro is a herb used in the salad for an additional layer of flavor. The script mentions that if viewers do not like cilantro, they can omit it, showing flexibility in the recipe. Cilantro adds a fresh, slightly citrusy taste to the salad, enhancing its overall flavor profile.

Highlights

Add a new 10-minute recipe to your repertoire: Smashed Cucumber Salad.

Learn subtle tips and techniques to improve your cooking skills.

How to develop the perfect bite of cucumber.

Wash and peel cucumbers in alternating stripes for a better taste and texture.

Choose slender, uniformly thick cucumbers for the best quality.

English cucumbers are softer with thinner peels and generally taste better.

Remove the core of the cucumber to prevent it from being too watery.

Smashing cucumbers helps seasonings penetrate better than chopping.

Use a cleaver or any heavy object to smash the cucumbers.

Cutting cucumbers at an angle gives longer pieces.

Use red bell pepper for a pop of color and sweetness.

Cilantro adds a fresh flavor, but can be omitted if not preferred.

Marinate cucumbers with salt and sugar to draw out moisture and enhance flavor.

Create a flavorful sauce with chili sauce, soy sauce, oyster sauce, vinegar, and sugar.

Adjust the sauce to your taste preference for spiciness and sourness.

Drain cucumbers and bell peppers after marinating to remove excess water.

Combine cucumbers, bell peppers, and sauce for a well-seasoned salad.

Add finishing touches like cilantro, sesame seeds, and oils for extra flavor.

Smashed Cucumber Salad is a hoi wai dish, which means it opens the stomach and wakes up your appetite.

Ensure the cucumber stays crunchy by marinating with vinegar.

Complete the dish by transferring it to a plate with all the delicious sauce.

Transcripts

Two reasons you’ll thank yourself for watching this video.

One:

you’ll add a new 10-minute recipe to your repertoire:

my dad’s zesty, crunchy

Smashed Cucumber Salad

Two:

this recipe is packed with a ton of subtle tips

and techniques that’ll make you a better chef.

We’ll start with how to develop the perfect bite of cucumber.

First, we're going to cut the cucumbers.

Of course, we need to wash them first.

Now, we'll cut them.

Two cucumbers.

First, we’ll trim off the ends.

Then we’ll peel them just a bit.

At home,

I peel it in an alternating pattern.

I think it's tastier that way.

Peel it in alternating stripes, not the whole thing.

Just a bit.

For one thing, it'll look nice,

and for another, the skin won't be as tough to eat.

Okay?

Shirley from the Canto Cooking Club asked,

"How do you hand-pick the best quality cucumber?"

For long cucumbers, this is quite good.

Don't get overly thick cucumbers.

The thicker ones are too mature.

Buy slender cucumbers.

With our ordinary short cucumbers,

again, don't get thick ones.

Look for uniform thickness,

not ones with bulging middles.

If the middle bulges out and the ends are slender, it's old.

When Daddy says long cucumber, he means English cucumbers.

He prefers English cucumbers.

English cucumbers are softer.

They have thinner peels.

Generally, they taste better.

These short ones are okay too, if you peel them.

The short cucumbers are crunchier.

You want cucumbers with bumpy peels, not smooth.

Ones with bumpy exteriors.

I was thinking it was the opposite,

that you'd want a bigger, smoother one.

Now, how to cut it?

Split it down the middle like this.

We’ll first cut the cucumber in half lengthwise.

You can remove some of the core.

Then it won't be so watery.

Then we’ll cut out most of the core.

There's not much core to remove on this piece.

This is a pretty good cucumber.

Not overly mature.

How can you tell?

If there are big seeds in the core, it's very mature.

"Why do you need to remove the cucumber seeds?"

Cucumbers contain a lot of water.

If you remove the core, it won't be so watery.

Too much water from the cucumber will dilute the seasoning

and change the flavor.

Now, we'll smash it.

We smash the cucumber with the cleaver for this dish.

You can put a lot of strength into it.

Grip the cleaver by the handle.

Now it’s time to smash with our cleaver.

Just like that.

Then, we cut strips.

After smashing, we’ll slice at a slight angle

into roughly 1/2-inch thick pieces.

Put them in a bowl.

If you don’t have a cleaver like this,

you can use anything heavy,

like a meat tenderizer or rolling pin.

"What's the difference between smashing and just chopping?"

Cucumbers are very dense,

so seasonings can't penetrate well.

Smashing loosens up the cucumbers.

Cutting or chopping doesn't do that,

so seasonings wouldn't penetrate chopped cucumber.

It wouldn't have as good a flavor or texture.

Smash this piece as well.

If smashing the cucumber causes it to split like this,

my dad likes to just cut it in half again

and cut in pieces at even more of an angle.

How are you cutting it?

I'm cutting it at an angle.

Okay?

Then the pieces are longer.

If I cut straight strips, they'd be very short.

The angle gives me longer pieces.

My dad likes to have longer slices,

which is why he cuts at an angle.

You can control and adapt your knife.

You don't always have to cut straight.

You adjust based on the shape of your ingredient.

For more tips about how to use a cleaver,

check out our comprehensive masterclass

on Chinese knife techniques

in the Canto Cooking Club.

To get access, learn more at club.madewithlau.com

"Is this normally eaten with the cucumber skin on,

or can you eat it without the skin?"

It's not as good if you completely peel the cucumber.

It'd be too soft.

You can peel it in alternating stripes.

Once we’re done cutting the cucumbers,

we’ll move on to the bell pepper.

We only need a bit of red bell pepper.

We just want it for a pretty pop of color.

Of course, it's tasty, too!

It's sweet.

We’ll use about a fourth of a red bell pepper.

Slice it thinly.

Then we’ll also slice it into 1/2-inch thick pieces.

How many oz is that?

Just 2 oz, not too much.

Chop some green onions.

Now we’ll dice up two pieces of green onion.

This is cilantro.

If you don't like cilantro, you can omit it.

We’ll chop up a small bunch of cilantro into inch-long pieces.

We have all of these ingredients listed on our blog at madewithlau.com

along with step-by-step instructions and video clips

to guide you as you make the recipe at home.

Let's marinate the cucumbers.

Start with 1 tsp of salt.

1 tsp of sugar.

Then, mix it well.

Using salt & sugar will pull out the moisture from the cucumbers.

Like salt, sugar also draws out moisture

from ingredients through osmosis.

We're trying to draw out the moisture from the cucumbers.

Then when we season it,

the flavors will penetrate the cucumbers better.

We can just mix everything together.

After a quick toss,

we’ll also add in the red bell peppers and mix it in.

Okay!

Set it there.

The salt and sugar step doesn't take long, just 30 minutes.

Some people season and eat it right away.

The longer you salt it, the more water comes out.

If you draw out more water, it'll have less cucumber taste.

As my dad mentions,

we’ll set the cucumbers and bell peppers aside for 30 minutes

to let the salt and sugar draw out the moisture.

If you don’t have the time, you can skip this step

or not wait the full 30 minutes.

In the meantime, we’ll prepare the garlic for the tasty sauce.

Now, let's smash the garlic.

3-4 cloves.

More garlic is tastier.

Squeeze the top and bottom.

The peel just pops off, see?

Very easy to peel!

We’ll first peel the garlic cloves.

To make the garlic paste-y,

some people smash down like this.

but that way won't make very small pieces.

Smash it like this.

We’ll turn the garlic into a paste

by smashing a little bit at a time

while holding one side of the clove.

Your index finger presses down on the side here.

Grip the handle firmly.

That's how you can put strength into it.

Watch.

We’ll do the same with the rest of the garlic.

Now you have a garlic paste.

Then we’ll do a quick chop of the paste before moving on.

Our garlic paste is ready.

What's next? The sauce!

Let's make the sauce.

This is chili sauce.

Homemade chili sauce.

Add 1/2 tsp of chili sauce.

Look at that amazing oil!

1 tbsp of light soy sauce.

1 tbsp of oyster sauce.

2 tbsp of vinegar.

Teresa from Patreon asked,

"What vinegar is best for this?"

White or rice vinegar.

Zhejiang vinegar is also good.

Don't use cheap vinegars, they're made of concentrates.

The very best vinegar is made from fermented rice.

2 tbsp of sugar.

Mix it well.

Jim from Patreon asked,

"What kind of seasonings and sauces can you use?"

The sauce for Smashed Cucumber Salad must be

sour, sweet, and spicy.

If you love spicy or sour flavors,

you can make the sauce more intense.

If you don't like it so spicy, make the sauce milder.

You can also add sesame seeds or peanuts,

some people like to add peanuts.

It doesn't really matter.

The sauce has to be sour, sweet, spicy, and salty.

Let's have a taste.

Make sure to try your sauce to see if it needs any adjustment.

A little more light soy sauce.

Another tsp of light soy sauce.

Add the garlic paste to the sauce.

Mix the garlic paste in.

Smashed Cucumber Salad, or paak wong gwa,

isn’t just an “appetizer” categorically

its purpose is to get you in the mood to eat.

In Cantonese, we describe foods that wake up your appetite

as hoi wai,

which literally means to open the stomach.

Flavors that we usually call hoi wai

are tangy & spicy,

which we achieve here with vinegar and chili sauce.

While you can use any type of chili sauce,

we’re using our homemade version

and you can use the link in our description

to check out that recipe.

Time's up with the vegetables.

After 30 minutes of letting the salt and sugar do their thing,

we’ll drain the cucumbers and bell peppers.

Look at all the water that came out.

Squeeze out more water from the vegetables.

We’ll press down on the cucumbers and bell peppers

to squeeze out any excess water.

More water came out.

We’ll discard the liquid

and put the cucumbers and bell peppers back in the large bowl

to get ready to combine everything.

Now, add all the sauce.

First, we’ll pour in the sauce we just made.

Add the chopped green onions.

Then we’ll add in the green onions and now we can mix.

Give it a good toss.

We’ll shake it well using a plate to cover it

but any sort of lid will work.

No need to mix, just shake it like this.

You can really shake it.

Help the cucumbers absorb that sauce.

After just 30 seconds of tossing,

we can add our finishing touches.

Now, add the cilantro.

If you don't like cilantro, just skip it.

Add some sesame seeds.

Sesame oil.

1/2 tbsp of sesame oil.

1/2 tbsp of cooking oil as well.

Mix it well.

After adding everything,

we can do a quick mix and give it a taste test.

A nice, crisp texture.

"How do you keep the cucumber crunchy?"

It'll stay crunchy once you add vinegar.

Whether you pickle carrots or anything with vinegar,

once you've marinated with vinegar, it'll be crunchy.

Finally, we’ll transfer everything onto a plate,

making sure to add all of that delicious sauce.

Hello, friends!

Smashed Cucumber Salad is complete!

I hope you all enjoy it.

Hong Doy, Mui Mui!

Time to eat cucumbers!

Cheers!

Thanks for watching!

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