This cucumber recipe is inspired by my recent visit to Chong Qing Lao Zao, a popular hot pot restaurant in Flushing, Queens. Their specialty is Chongqing-style hot pot made with Sichuan peppers and rich beef tallow and it’s the best spicy hot pot I’ve had to date. Assembling the concoction of ingredients for your hotpot sauce is always a creative affair and my friend taught me a traditional Chongqing style dipping sauce. The sauce was simple – a heaping spoon of minced garlic, oyster sauce, scallions, cilantro and a copious amount of sesame oil. I gathered all the ingredients at the sauce bar and I found myself constantly dipping my chopsticks into the sauce throughout the meal.
I recreated the Chongqing dipping sauce for a weeknight hotpot at home. I added in some chopped mini cucumbers to the leftover sauce and it was an instant hit with my family. The garlicky, sweet and salty, umami filled cucumber salad became a weekly banchan staple at our home and it’s become my daughters’ favorite cucumber salad. It’s so addicting that it will have you reaching for a second bowl of rice.
Rice Thief Cucumber Salad
Ingredients
- 1 lb organic mini cucumbers about 8 mini cucumbers, sliced 1/4 inch thick
- 1 scallion
- 1 tbsp garlic finely minced
- 1/4 cup sesame oil
- 1 tbsp oyster sauce
- 1/2 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
- 1 tsp sugar
- 6 g cilantro or more to your heart's content
- fine sea salt to taste
Instructions
- In a small mixing bowl, add the sesame oil, minced garlic, oyster sauce, sugar and toasted sesame seeds. Mix all the ingredients together with a spoon and let the sauce sit for 10 minutes.
- While the sauce is marinating, chop up the mini cucumbers into 1/4" thick pieces. Transfer the chopped cucumbers to a large bowl.
- Add the scallions, cilantro and sauce into the bowl with cucumbers and mix everything thoroughly. Garnish with additional sesame seeds and cilantro and serve immediately.
Crunchy, refreshing, pairs with everything!