Fuchsia Dunlop's smacked cucumber in garlicky sauce
This exceptionally quick and easy dish was a favourite of mine at the now demolished and much-missed Bamboo Bar, a small restaurant just outside the Sichuan University campus. The serving girls there, who lodged like sardines in the attic at the top of the old wooden building, used to mix up the seasonings behind the counter, taking spoonfuls of garnet-red chilli oil and dark soy sauce from the bowls in the glass cabinet beside them and tossing the cucumber in the piquant sauce. The combination of seasonings, known as "garlic paste flavour" (suan ni wei), is a Sichuanese classic, with its garlicky pungency and undercurrent of sweetness: the same sauce may be used to dress fresh broad beans, thinly sliced cooked pork (perhaps mixed with fine slivers of carrot and Asian radish), boiled pork dumplings or wontons, and many other ingredients. You may use sweet, aromatic soy sauce instead of light soy sauce if you have it in stock.
The cucumber is smacked before cutting to loosen its flesh and help it absorb the flavours of the sauce. Try not to smash it into smithereens!
serves 2 as a starter or side dish
cucumber 1 (about 300g)
black rice vinegar ½ tsp
salt ½ tsp
chilli oil 2 tbsp
garlic 1 tbsp, finely chopped
ground roasted Sichuan pepper a pinch or two (optional)
caster sugar ½ tsp
light soy sauce 2 tsp
Lay the cucumber on a chopping board and smack it hard a few times with the flat blade of a Chinese cleaver or with a rolling pin. Then cut it, lengthways, into four pieces. Hold your knife at an angle to the chopping board and cut the cucumber on the diagonal into ½–1cm slices. Place in a bowl with the salt, mix well and set aside for about 10 minutes.
Combine all the other ingredients in a small bowl.
Drain the cucumber, pour over the sauce, stir well and serve immediately.
Variations
A sweet and sour sauce for smacked cucumber is a lovely variation.
Smack, cut and salt the cucumber as in the main recipe, but dress it with the following seasonings: ½ tsp salt, 1 tbsp finely chopped garlic, 2 tsp caster sugar, 2 tsp black rice vinegar, 1 tsp light soy sauce and, if you fancy a bit of heat, 2 tbsp chilli oil.
For a nutty, savoury flavour of smacked cucumber with sesame and preserved mustard greens, smack, cut and salt the cucumber as in the main recipe, but dress it with the following seasonings: 2 tbsp Sichuan preserved mustard greens (ya cai), 1 tsp finely chopped garlic, 1 tbsp runny sesame paste, 1½ tsp clear rice vinegar, 1 tsp sesame oil and salt to taste.
From Every Grain of Rice by Fuchsia Dunlop (Bloomsbury, RRP £25)
Buy it from the Guardian Bookshop here
David Tanis's radishes à la crème
The only work is in the slicing. A mandoline is the best tool to ensure the slices are uniformly thin.
Serves 4
red radishes or daikon 225g large
sea salt
crème fraîche 60ml, or a little more
milk a few drops (optional)
pepper
With a mandoline or a sharp knife, slice the radishes as thin as possible. Arrange the slices on a platter. Sprinkle lightly with salt. If the crème fraîche is quite thick, beat it with a spoon for a minute to lighten it up, or thin with a few drops of milk or water. Spoon it generously over the sliced radishes. Finish with as much freshly ground pepper as you like. You can also serve the salad on thinly sliced rye bread for great little open-faced sandwiches.
From One Good Dish by David Tanis (Artisan, RRP £17.99)
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Stevie Parle's tomato salad with flowers, za'atar and freekeh
Freekeh is an unusual Lebanese wheat with which I am obsessed. It's picked while still under-ripe and set on fire to remove the husk, which smokes and toasts the grain.
Serves 4
freekeh or farro 50g (available from online specialists such as souschef.co.uk)
sea salt
olive oil
pomegranate molasses 1 tbsp
tomatoes 6, of great flavour, colour and ripeness
za'atar 1 scant tsp
edible flowers a few, I usually have violas, rocket flowers, or borage to hand in the summer (available from greengrocers or Waitrose)
Wash the freekeh or farro and boil it gently in unseasoned water for up to an hour, or just 20 minutes, depending on your freekeh (some are broken grains, others whole). It should be soft but still slightly chewy. Drain, then season with salt and dress with olive oil.
In a little bowl, whisk the pomegranate molasses with 3 tbsp olive oil to make an emulsified dressing.
Slice the tomatoes thinly, in little wedges or round slices, a way that looks pretty and is sensitive to their natural shape. Toss with salt and a little olive oil. Lay the tomatoes on a plate, scatter with the freekeh, za'atar and edible flowers. Finish the plate by drizzling with the pomegranate molasses mixture.
From Dock Kitchen Cookbook by Stevie Parle (Quadrille, RRP £25)
Nigel Slater's salad of crab, avocado and lime
A rather luxurious salad here, one for a special occasion. I sometimes use this as a first course instead of a light lunch, in which case it will serve three, rather elegantly. In a perfect world you could use your own home-cooked crab, but
I often use ready-dressed crab from the fishmonger's.
Enough for 2
small, red chilli 1
thin spring onions 2
cucumber a 10cm piece
avocados 2, small
mixed crabmeat 300g
For the dressing
palm sugar or golden caster sugar 1 heaped tsp
fish sauce (nam pla) 1 tbsp
lime juice 3 tbsp
coriander leaves a handful
To serve
ciabatta 4 slices
lime ½
olive oil a little
Seed and very finely chop the chilli. Cut the spring onions into very fine slices and add to the chilli. Peel the cucumber, halve it, scrape out the seeds with a teaspoon, then dice the flesh into tiny cubes.
Remove the flesh from the avocados and dice it finely. Toss the cucumber and avocado with the spring onions and chilli.
Put the sugar in a small mixing bowl, add the fish sauce and lime juice and stir till the sugar is dissolved. Chop the coriander leaves and stir into the dressing. No further seasoning is necessary.
Toast the slices of bread till crisp, rub with the cut side of the lime to release a little of the juice, then trickle over enough olive oil to saturate each one.
Put the crabmeat in a mixing bowl with the cucumber and avocado mixture, pour over the dressing and toss very gently, using a fork to mix.
Pile on to plates and serve with the lime toasts.
From The Kitchen Diaries II by Nigel Slater (Fourth Estate, RRP £30)
Buy it from the Guardian Bookshop here
Fergus Henderson's anchovy, little gem and tomato salad
Amazingly uplifting powers for a simple salad.
Serves 4
tomatoes 6, the happiest you can find (it is possible to find tomatoes on the vine)
sea salt and black pepper
extra virgin olive oil
curly parsley a handful, chopped
good anchovy fillets in oil 16, separated but kept whole
little gem lettuce 2 heads, washed and separated, not shredded
vinaigrette a splash
For the vinaigrette (makes about 300ml)
garlic 2 cloves
Dijon mustard 1 tbsp
sea salt and black pepper a pinch
lemon juice of 1
white wine vinegar 2 tsp
extra virgin olive oil 300ml
You can make the vinaigrette in a food processor or by hand.
Crush your garlic (making sure this is finely done, as you don't want chips of garlic in your dressing), add the mustard, salt and pepper, lemon juice, and vinegar, then, as you mix, slowly add the olive oil so you get an emulsion. Once all the oil is added check the dressing for taste; you can add more salt and pepper, lemon juice or vinegar to taste at this point.
The lemon juice and vinegar used together seem to set each other off, avoiding a too bitter lemon result, and the juice tempers the vinegar rather in the same magical way whiskey and lemon juice meet in a whiskey sour, both becoming something else together. The vinaigrette keeps very well in the fridge.
Slice the tomatoes in half lengthwise, sprinkle with salt and pepper and oil, and roast in a medium oven for approximately 20 minutes.
This will soften and slightly dry them, intensifying and sweetening their flavour. Allow to cool. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and eat.
From The Complete Nose to Tail by Fergus Henderson (Bloomsbury, RRP £30)
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