Meat was a luxury for Pamelia Chia's grandparents. The Singapore-raised chef recalls how older generations enjoyed chicken and rice on payday because it was the only time they could afford it. How times have changed. By the 1990s, when she grew up, seafood, meat, and dairy were on every dinner table and in almost every dish. When Chia moved to Australia, she grappled with the effects of climate change, seeing brush fires up close. She changed her diet but was hesitant to compromise flavor, texture, and satisfaction. She turned to Asian cuisines and techniques to make vegetables taste delicious.
When Chia started her journey into a plant-rich diet, she found that most cookbooks were written by vegetarians for vegetarians. She wasn't interested in fake meat or soy-based products. Yotam Ottolenghi inspired her to reach out to 24 chefs, adapting their recipes for a vegetable-forward book, Plantasia: A Vegetarian Cookbook Through Asia.
The key to this salad is to smack open the cucumbers with the back of a cleaver so they absorb the seasonings. Photo by Gold and Grit Photography.
Sizzling Cucumber Salad with Silken Tofu
Serves 3 to 4
In Chinese food culture, there are dishes to ‘open your stomach’ with (kāi wèi cài/ 开胃菜). These are usually an assortment of little dishes eaten at the start of the meal, and this recipe is one of my favourites because it is so refreshing. The key to this dish is to smack the cucumber with the back of a cleaver (or another heavy object) until it splits open. This encourages it to imbibe any dressing of your choice, which, in this case, is made by scalding aromatics with hot oil to enhance their flavour and colour. If you’re after a richer, more luxurious alternative to silken tofu, stracciatella is an unconventional but great option.
Ingredients
- 1 large cucumber (12½ oz/350g)
- 1 tsp salt
- 14 oz/400g silken tofu
- 1 tbsp sesame seeds
- 5 tbsp/75ml oil
- ⅓ cup/45g raw peanuts, with or without skin
- 3 tbsp Chinkiang black vinegar
- 3 tbsp soy sauce
- 3 tsp sesame oil
- 2 garlic cloves (⅓ oz/10g), finely grated
- 2 tsp sugar
- 1½ tbsp Korean chilli flakes (gochugaru)
- ½ tsp Sichuan pepper powder
Instructions
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Slice the cucumber in half, lengthwise. Place the cucumber halves cut side down on the chopping board.
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Smack the side of a large knife, preferably a heavy cleaver, firmly along the entire length of the cucumber halves until they split.
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Slice the cucumber thickly, on a diagonal, and transfer to a mixing bowl. Toss with the salt.
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On a serving platter, spoon large chunks of the silken tofu.
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In a dry pan set over medium heat, toast the sesame seeds until golden, shaking the pan constantly. Tip the toasted seeds into a small bowl.
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Set the saucepan on high heat. Add the oil and raw peanuts. When the skin begins to peel or the skinless peanuts turn golden, transfer them to a paper towel-lined dish with a slotted spoon. Set the pan with the oil aside for later use.
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Drain the salted cucumber and toss it with the vinegar, soy sauce, and sesame oil. Top the dressed cucumber with the garlic, sugar, chilli flakes, and pepper powder.
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Set the pan with the reserved oil on high heat until the oil just begins to smoke. Pour it over the aromatics— they should sizzle upon contact.
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Toss the cucumber salad briskly. Taste and season with more soy sauce, black vinegar or sugar, if desired.
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Spoon the cucumber and dressing over the tofu. Scatter the sesame seeds and fried peanuts over and serve immediately.
Chia builds dishes around flavor, accent, technique, and texture. Take her hot button mushrooms by Gayan Pieris, a Sri Lankan chef living in Australia. The recipe riffs on the popular Sri Lankan dish of hot buttered calamari. Hand-shredded mushrooms are added to a thin spice batter then deep-fried, creating caramelization using kecap manis (a sweet soy sauce) and ketchup.
For her book "Plantasia," Pamelia Chia reached out to 24 different Asian chiefs to compile vegetable-forward recipes. Photo courtesy of Singapore Noodles.