Cucumber and Wakame Sunomono (きゅうりとわかめの酢の物, Kyūri to Wakame no Sunomono)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Sharp hōchō or chef's knife
• •Mandoline with hand guard, optional
• •Clean sarashi cloth or thin kitchen towel
• •Zaru or fine colander
• •Small nonreactive mixing bowl

Instructions

1. 1

   Soak the wakame

   Put the dried wakame in a bowl of cold water for about five minutes, just until it opens, turns deep green, and feels supple between your fingers. Drain it well and squeeze it gently. Don't leave it soaking while you do everything else. Wakame gives up its clean sea flavor to the water, then turns slack, and you've gained nothing.

2. 2

   Salt the cucumber

   Slice the cucumbers into thin rounds, about 2mm if your knife is steady. Toss them with the salt and leave them for ten minutes, until they darken slightly and bend without snapping. The salt is not only seasoning. It draws out the water that would otherwise dilute the vinegar.

   If the cucumbers are large and seedy, halve them lengthwise and scrape out the wet center first. A watery cucumber makes a watery sunomono.
3. 3

   Wring them dry

   Gather the cucumber slices in a clean cloth or in your hands and squeeze firmly over the sink. You want them damp and pliant, not dripping. This is the small, unglamorous step that makes the dish work. Without it, the sanbaizu slides off and gathers at the bottom of the bowl.

4. 4

   Mix sanbaizu

   Briefly boil the mirin for thirty seconds, then cool it. Whisk it with the rice vinegar, cold dashi, usukuchi shōyu, and sugar until the sugar dissolves. Taste it before the vegetables go in. It should be brighter and sharper than you want the finished dish, because cucumber and wakame will soften it.

   Cold dashi rounds the vinegar, but water is a sensible stand-in here. The stock supports the dressing. It is not the whole dish.
5. 5

   Dress and rest

   Combine the wrung cucumber and drained wakame in a bowl. Add enough sanbaizu to gloss everything, then toss lightly and rest for five minutes in the refrigerator. Toss once more before serving. The short rest lets the vinegar settle into the cucumber without stealing its snap.

6. 6

   Serve quietly

   Lift the sunomono into small bowls, leaving excess dressing behind. Finish with a small scatter of toasted sesame seeds. Serve it cold or cool, in restrained portions, with space around it. A vinegared dish is meant to refresh the meal, not shout over it.

Chef Tips

• •Use Japanese cucumbers if you can find them, or Persian cucumbers as a good stand-in. They have thin skin, small seeds, and less water, so the finished dish stays crisp and clean.
• •Measure the salt. Too little and the cucumber keeps its water. Too much and you have to rinse hard, which washes away the seasoning you just gave it.
• •If using salted fresh wakame, rinse it well, soak it briefly, and taste before dressing. It should taste clean and faintly of the sea, not like a mouthful of salt water.
• •Adding boiled octopus makes a neighboring dish, tako sunomono. Good dish, wrong name. For this one, let cucumber and wakame carry the bowl.

Advance Preparation

• •The sanbaizu can be made three days ahead and kept refrigerated.
• •The cucumbers can be sliced, salted, wrung dry, and refrigerated up to six hours ahead.
• •Soak and drain the wakame the same day you serve it. Once dressed, the salad is best within four hours, before the cucumber gives up more water.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 100g)