Smashed Cucumber
I wanted to make a bowl of salad but I only had a fresh cucumber from our local farm stand. Smashed cucumber is a common Japanese side dish, but apparently it originates from Sichuan, China. Actually I haven't smashed cucumber before. I got a Japanese-style smashed cucumber recipe online and tried to smash the cucumber with the smooth surface of meat tenderizer. Oh-oh, what a mess! Many seeds jumped out to everywhere from a few cracks I made while the cucumber wasn't really smashed because the skin was pretty tough. Japanese cucumbers are usually seedless and have a thiner skin. After all, I used a knife and hands to make chunky cucumber cuts. It's supposed to be a spicy dish with red chili peppers, mine made with a tiny bit of Chinese red chili bean paste along with other ingredients wasn't spicy at all. Perhaps I will make a little more spicy if there is next time... I am not sure...
