Korean spicy cucumber banchan
As promised. .. here is the Korean spicy cucumber banchan. I’m surprised I haven’t made this before o_O out of all things, my go-to summer vegetable is probably these mini cucumbers. They’re so crisp & fresh! & they’re almost always on sale. I wished there was a way to “preserve” them. .. freezing doesn’t work lol I’ve tried with one. The cucumber turns weird. .. so don’t do it!
Anyway, this banchan was a huge success! Since this 1st trial, I’ve made 2 more batches.
This isn’t a fermented product like kimchi; it can be eaten same day if you make it in the morning & have it for dinner. My 1st trial was overnight & consumed about 24hrs later. But the subsequent ones, I made it around breakfast time & had it during dinner so.. . about 8-9hrs.
For all 3 times, I used 4 mini cucumbers & cut them into finger-length pieces. This is mainly for my container - as I maximize the space haha
In my container, I mixed gochujang, minced garlic, soy sauce, plum sauce, balsamic vinegar (the fig one from Evoolution!), sesame seeds, sesame oil & chili flakes. I also add a teeny bit of water to mix everything together. I don’t have an amount for any of these items. My 2nd one was the most spicy & that was bcos I added more gochujang. From my 1st trial, I added too much water when making the sauce so when the cucumber say overnight, so much water was released, I had a lot of brine. (Thus I ended up using that for my cold noodles, which was great!) So what I’m saying is. .. you can adjust your ratio of ingredients to suit your taste.
I basically rolled each cucumber in the sauce & then tried to mix it all up. I skipped using this step in a bowl bcos I hope to do less dishes lol this way, the container can be used if there’s leftovers :P smart, right??