Gyu-Kaku Cucumber Salad

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Cucumber is about 96% water, and almost all of it is free — held loosely enough that salt will pull it out within half an hour.

Dress a bowl of raw cucumber and come back in twenty minutes and you will find a pool of pale liquid and a dressing that has been diluted into nothing. That is not a small effect; it is often more liquid than the dressing itself.

Salt the cucumber, wait 30 minutes, and pour the water away.

What salting achieves

Concentrated flavour. What is left tastes more of cucumber, not less.

A firmer bite. Counterintuitive, but cucumber that has lost some water is denser and snappier, not limp.

A dressing that stays a dressing. This is the main point.

Rinse briefly afterwards and pat dry, or the salad will be too salty. A quick rinse does not put the water back.

Smash them, do not slice them

The Chinese and Japanese technique of smashing cucumber with the flat of a knife is not for show.

Smashing tears the flesh along irregular lines, creating far more surface area and rough edges than a clean cut does. Dressing clings to torn surfaces and slides off smooth ones.

Press down with the flat of a heavy knife until the cucumber cracks, then tear or cut it into rough pieces.

Small cucumbers

Japanese, Persian or mini cucumbers. Thinner skin, fewer seeds, denser flesh.

Large slicing cucumbers have a watery seed core that stays soggy however long you salt them — scoop it out with a spoon if that is all you have.

What you need

• 4 small cucumbers (about 500 g)
• 1 tsp salt, for salting
• 2 tbsp rice vinegar
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
• 1 tsp granulated sugar
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp grated ginger
• 1/2 tsp red chilli flakes
• 1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
• 2 spring onions, sliced

Method

1. Smash the cucumbers with the flat of a heavy knife until they crack, then tear into rough 3 cm pieces.
2. Toss with the salt in a colander and leave 30 minutes over a bowl.
3. Rinse briefly and pat dry.
4. Whisk the vinegar, soy, sesame oil, sugar, garlic, ginger and chilli flakes.
5. Toss the cucumber through.
6. Chill 15 minutes.
7. Sesame seeds and spring onions over the top.

Dissolve the sugar first

Whisk the sugar into the vinegar before the oil goes in. Sugar dissolves in water and not in oil, and added to a finished dressing it stays as grains at the bottom of the bowl.

Fifteen minutes, not two hours

Long enough for the dressing to take, short enough that the cucumber has not started giving up its remaining water.

This salad has a window of about an hour at its best. It is not a make-ahead dish, even after salting.

Storing

Two days in the fridge, and it will get progressively wetter. Drain it before serving on day two.

Do not freeze — cucumber turns to mush.