{"id":16392,"date":"2014-06-28T18:36:16","date_gmt":"2014-06-28T16:36:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/?p=16392"},"modified":"2014-06-28T18:36:16","modified_gmt":"2014-06-28T16:36:16","slug":"korean-cucumber-salad-oi-saengchae","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/?p=16392","title":{"rendered":"Korean Cucumber Salad (Oi Saengchae)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"cucsaladp\"Back to Korean cuisine! With its\u00a0refreshing subtle flavours cucumber has endless serving or cooking possibilities. Thanks to it\u00a0high water content and almost zero calorie\u00a0count, it\u00a0is also one of the best weight-controlling\u00a0allies\u00a0I know. This recently discovered Korean spicy salad is\u00a0one more fantastic dish\u00a0I am proudly adding to my\u00a0collection of cucumber recipes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I found this salad\u00a0in Hi Soo Shin Heppinstall’s Growing Up in a Korean Kitchen<\/a><\/span>, one of the biggest gems\u00a0in my culinary library (Stir-Fried Pork Loin<\/a>, Mung Bean Sprouts Salad <\/a>or\u00a0Kimchi Soup<\/a>\u00a0are other\u00a0amazing dishes realised thanks to\u00a0the same fascinating source). I have seen several\u00a0Korean cucumber salads on the web, but this one has particularly attracted my attention, first\u00a0because of\u00a0the paper-thin\u00a0cucumber slicing and, most of all, with the presence\u00a0of walnuts, regularly used\u00a0in Hi Soo Shin Hepinstall’s dishes. Having used walnuts in some other Korean dishes (such as Cold Bibimbap<\/a>), I think that apart from the\u00a0crunchiness, their\u00a0slight astringency adds an invaluable touch\u00a0to the\u00a0typically Korean hot and sweet flavours’ combination. Even though the author suggests almonds as a replacement for walnuts, I would\u00a0not advise it (unless you hate walnuts, of course).<\/p>\n

If you look for other cucumber serving ideas, you might like these:<\/p>\n

\"Cucumber<\/a>
Cucumber Stir-Fried with Chicken<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Easy<\/a>
Easy Cucumber Kimchi (Oi Kimchi)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Cucumber<\/a>
Cucumber Fried with Perilla (Shiso)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
<\/div>\n
\"Pickled<\/a>
Pickled Dill Cucumber<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Moomins'<\/a>
Moomins’ Pickled Cucumber Salad<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Kyuuri<\/a>
Kyuuri no Kyuuchan (Jap. Cucumber with Soy Sauce and Ginger)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
<\/div>\n
\"Feta,<\/a>
Feta, Apple and Cucumber Salad with Yogurt<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
<\/div>\n

TIP: This salad can be served straight away, but it is at its best the following day (the flavours develop\u00a0and the cucumber becomes slightly pickled), so it’s best to prepare it in advance.<\/p>\n

Special equipment: a mandolin is very handy to obtain paper-thin slices<\/em><\/p>\n

Preparation: 20 minutes<\/em><\/p>\n

Ingredients:<\/em><\/p>\n

1 big long cucumber (or the equivalent in shorter cucumbers, weighing about 500 g\/about 1 lb)<\/em><\/p>\n

1 teaspoon salt<\/em><\/p>\n

Seasoning:<\/em><\/p>\n

4\u00a0tablespoons rice vinegar<\/em><\/p>\n

1 teaspoon rice wine (I have used sake)<\/em><\/p>\n

1 tablespoon sesame oil<\/em><\/p>\n

4 tablespoons of chopped white and light green parts of green onion<\/em><\/p>\n

2 walnut kernels, finely chopped<\/em><\/p>\n

1 heaped teaspoon toasted sesame seeds<\/em><\/p>\n

1\/2 small clove garlic, finely chopped<\/em><\/p>\n

1 teaspoon Korean chilli powder<\/em><\/p>\n

1 teaspoon sugar<\/em><\/p>\n

1\/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper<\/em><\/p>\n

1 teaspoon finely chopped Korean parsley (I have used shiso\/perilla leaves which have nothing in common, but they pair well with cucumber<\/em>)<\/em><\/p>\n

(salt)<\/em><\/p>\n

(chilli threads for decoration)<\/em><\/p>\n

If you use a big long cucumber, cut it horizontally in two and then slice thinly with a mandolin (you should obtain paper-thin transparent slices).
\nIf you have short cucumbers, don’t slice them horizontally, but simply slice whole.<\/p>\n

Put the cucumber slices in a bowl, sprinkle some salt and mix well with your hands.<\/p>\n

Leave them for 15 minutes.<\/p>\n

Wrap the sliced cucumber(s) into paper towels and squeeze out as much water as you can.<\/p>\n

Put the cucumber back to the bowl and combine with the remaining ingredients.<\/p>\n

The salad can be served at once, but it’s best chilled (the author suggests chilling it overnight).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back to Korean cuisine! With its\u00a0refreshing subtle flavours cucumber has endless serving or cooking possibilities. Thanks to it\u00a0high water content and almost zero calorie\u00a0count, it\u00a0is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16394,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[44,125,183,133,18],"tags":[12,114],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16392"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16392"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16430,"href":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16392\/revisions\/16430"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}