I've recently become more brightly enlightened. After perusing many recipes within a few months' worth of pages from the Guardian and the Observer. I came across an oddity. Humble ingredients is what I am about when cooking. I rarely use unusual products and I am not a fan of processed foods. Basil and garlic are a staple of our lives at home and have been permeating my nostrils since I was a kid. Tomatoes, basil, garlic, onions, This is about one humble ingredient, the cucumber. A smacked cucumber, no less. What the devil is a smacked cucumber, I thought!!
This all caught my eye and infuriated me initially as it smacked (oops) of Jamie Oliver's 'rough and ready' methods. I lack self control! So when a drizzle for him becomes an outpouring of half a bottle of olive oil, for instance I become a twitching and overly nervous wreck.
My investigation needed to start. But was this smacked cucumber a new ingredient it a new method? Would I need to visit the local oriental supermarket or prepare my kitchen for an onslaught!! Many ideas went through my mind: an abused cucumber would be a beyond the oriental cuisine, I thought. So actually I had no clue. I needed to know so I had to 'Google' it.
There it is, an old Chinese tradition to enable the sauce or marinade to enter the flesh of the cucumber.
There is a knack. The purist in me didn't like this ridiculous gastronomical preparation oddness. I just couldn't understand what wrong would have come if instead of ' smacked' the desired effect had been described as 'large pieces of cucumber'. I'm not so gullible however. I had precariously concluded that in the process of bashing a cucumber to smithereens (which would cause water to splatter across my kitchen) you could achieve the desired cracking and disassembling of the said vegetable thus creating the result of disorganized pieces of cucumber.
I love the humble cucumber! I use it to snack on, to juice with or to fill a plate for hungry children. Sometimes even as an elongated aid to a homemade sauce or dip. It refreshes the mouth, re-hydrates the cells and probably has more elementary and beautiful properties.
This is a Chinese Smacked Cucumber Salad. I am still finding it hard to get my tongue in the right place to say it though!!.
