Smashed cucumber salad

Smashing, or smacking, cucumber brings out the flavour and makes the texture superbly juicy.

SERVES FOUR AS A SIDE INGREDIENTS

4 thick-skinned cucumbers (the short kind)

1 tsp caster sugar

1 tbsp coarse sea salt

1 tbsp white wine or cider vinegar

1 tbsp fish sauce

1 tbsp mild red pepper flakes (Aleppo pepper or Pul Biber) 1 tsp nigella seeds, toasted 2 cloves of garlic, crushed A handful of mint leaves, torn

METHOD

Peel the cucumbers and hit them quite hard all over with a rolling pin or kitchen mallet. They should split and squirt juice. Break them apart with your hands over a bowl into jagged pieces.

In a small bowl, mix the sugar and salt with the vinegar and fish sauce to dissolve them, then mix thoroughly (with your hands) into the cucumber. Stir in the red pepper flakes, nigella seeds and garlic. Chill until needed.

Taste the cucumbers and consider the balance of salt, sweet and sour. Adjust as you see fit; fold through the torn mint.

Rethink slicing. Tearing fruit gives it a bigger surface area to absorb and release flavours, while smashing cucumber makes it ultra-juicy, and grating “has a more violent effect on the flesh than just chopping”, writes Eagle. Pounding raw meat, as in the Lebanese kibbeh nayyeh (mixed with bulgur wheat and spices), has a long history: steak tartare is said to have come about when Tartar horsemen tenderised their steak by storing it under the saddle.

SALTING

Salt preserves food, but it has other effects too, chiefly because it draws out moisture. It can both firm and soften, so a pile of sliced onions is mellowed and tenderised by massaging with salt, while cod develops a tighter texture and more intense flavour after six hours in a salt rub.

SOURING

Eagle is a pickling expert and, as you would expect, he gives lots of attention to this aspect of food transformation in

Herring pickled in vinegar develop a cooked texture, in the same way lime juice “cooks” fish in ceviche (turning it from translucent to opaque), while a jar of gherkins is improved by – of all things – the addition of a Yorkshire teabag.

AGEING

As food ages, it breaks down, making it more tender and (when done right) delicious. Fermentation – another area where Eagle has enormous knowledge – relies on time and ageing, as well as salt and natural souring, in preparations like sauerkraut and sardella Calabrese (Calabrian pickled sardines), along with dry cured hams and sausages.