The Cucumber Comes Full Circle

Back on September 26th, I posted about a quick cucumber salad made with cucumbers, lemon, and mint. Shortly thereafter, Wena wrote up step-by-step instructions on mum-mum for a Malaysian version incorporating onions, rice vinegar, and chiles.

I finally made her recipe, with a couple of minor changes. I used two English cucumbers (rather than the unusual Asian cucumbers she described) and a peeler to make wide slices of unseeded cucumber, setting aside the portion with seeds. In addition, I tried to find the Medusa pepper she recommended, but ended up with a long red chile of mysterious (unlabeled) origin.

The recipe calls for salting the cucumber and onion for one hour to drain the vegetables of water. The salting process had an incredible effect on the cucumber, turning the long, wide slices I had made into narrow, soft, spaghetti-like strips which still retained their essential crunch. The addition of sugar and vinegar to the combination of cucumber, onions, and chiles gave the salad a distinct pickled flavor.

The end result is a refreshing salad of contrasts: Sweet and sour, soft and crunchy, hot and cool.