COOL ASA CUCUMBER

When the weather is hot, the food should be cold. Sunday’s resident chef Sam Mannering has two chilled recipes to take the temperature down and make the most of summer produce.

It’s too hot to eat. Writing this 10 days in advance (spoiler!) makes me nervous that I’m going to jinx it, but honestly, when it’s 25°C, mealtimes seem merely performative. For a natural glutton such as myself, this presents a problem; my head says yes but my body says no. This is when a cucumber comes in handy. Negative calories, so they say. I don’t give a fig about calories but I do love cucumbers for being crisp and refreshing; on the lighter side but without being completely nonexistent. Aside from dunking them into Pimms, here are two ideas to make the most of them as we wilt and swelter in what now appears to be an absolute pizza oven of a summer.

SMOKED FISH AND CUCUMBER BRUSCHETTA

I’m writing this off-site, from Abel Tasman. I paid a visit to the Smokehouse in Māpua. Their smoked fish is bloody gorgeous. Look them up – they’re in a lot of supermarkets now. Our smoked fish is so, so good in New Zealand, but I feel like it’s somewhat underrated and overlooked compared with a lot of our kaimoana. Use it. There’s also a lot to be said for the glories of fried bread. I mean, bruschetta.

PREP TIME: 15 MINUTES COOK TIME: 10 MINUTES SERVES: 4 AS A LIGHT LUNCH

• 300g smoked fish – kingfish, kahawai, bluenose, hāpuku, that sort of thing

• 10 cornichons, roughly chopped

• ¼ red onion, finely chopped

• Handful of fresh basil, plus another small handful of soft herbs – flatleafed parsley, mint, oregano, dill,

chives – whatever you have

• Zest and juice of half a lemon

• 2 tbsp of good mayonnaise or aioli

• Sea salt and black pepper

• Half a cucumber

• 8 pieces of good sourdough, cut thickly

• Olive oil

1. Flake the smoked fish into a bowl. Add the cornichons, red onion, herbs, lemon zest and juice and the mayo, and fold together. Taste and season.

2. Thinly slice the cucumber into rounds, and then slice into thin strands. Set aside a minute.

3. Get a frying pan or grill going over a moderately high heat. Add a bit of oil to the pan. Drizzle the sourdough generously with olive oil on both sides and grill until lovely and golden brown.

4. While your grilled sourdough is still lovely and warm, top with the smoked fish mixture, and garnish generously with the sliced cucumber. Arrange on a plate, drizzle with a little more oil and season with a bit more salt and pepper. Serve immediately.

CHINESE STYLE CUCUMBER SALAD

I try not to subscribe to trends. However, one lunchtime recently, with a lingering summer hangover that had me in a foul mood and in need of something fresh and reasonably healthy, I remembered a TikTok video that demonstrated cutting up a cucumber in a way I’d never seen before. I didn’t think it would work. I tried it anyway. It turned out to be so astonishingly easy and impressive that I found myself exclaiming aloud with the unexpected delight of it. And it damn near got rid of the hangover. It’s advisable to chop it up into more manageable pieces to serve, and will do well being chilled a bit in the fridge beforehand. I’ve taken a fairly classic Chinese approach to this recipe but you may want to garnish with chopped peanuts and some pickled ginger; maybe some soft tofu to make it more substantial. Delish.

PREP TIME: 15 MINUTES COOK TIME: ZILCH, BUT 1 HOUR CHILLING TIME SERVES: 2 AS A LIGHT MEAL, 4 AS A SIDE

• 2 telegraph cucumbers, halved

• 2 tsp salt

• 1 tsp sesame oil

• 2 tsp soy sauce

• 2 tbsp black Chinese vinegar

• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

• About 2 tsp Chinese chilli paste, or more, to taste

• 2 tsp sesame seeds

1. Take a pair of chopsticks and lay them on either side of your cucumber. Using a sharp knife, make fine slices on the diagonal all the way along the cucumber. The chopsticks will prevent you from cutting all the way through. Flip the cucumber over and cut on the other diagonal, again using the chopsticks as a buffer so that you don’t cut all the way though. What you will be left with is a kind of cucumber slinky that you’ll be able to carefully stretch out like a spring.

2. Place your cucumber slinkies in a mixing bowl and sprinkle over the salt. Let it sit for 10 minutes, then wash and rinse the cucumbers of excess salt, and pat dry.

3. Return to the mixing bowl and add the sesame oil, soy sauce, vinegar, chopped garlic, chilli paste and sesame seeds. Toss together so the liquid makes its way right through the cucumber.

4. Cover and leave to chill for at least an hour in the fridge, before serving with more chilli paste on the side to taste.