Seasoned Salads

Oi-muchim (Spicy Cucumber Salad)

Name: Oi-muchim (Spicy Cucumber Salad)
Prep time: 15 min
Total time: 15 min
Yield: 2 servings
Cuisine: Korean
Ingredients: cucumbers 2 (about 400 g); onion 1/4; salt 1/2 tsp; gochugaru (Korean chili flakes) 1 Tbsp; vinegar 1 Tbsp; sugar 1/2 Tbsp; minced garlic 1/2 tsp; anchovy fish sauce 1 tsp; toasted sesame oil 1 tsp; toasted sesame seeds a pinch

Salting the cucumbers for 10 minutes draws out water so the salad stays drier once dressed. Mix the dressing first, gently toss in the cucumber and onion, and dress it right before eating to keep it crunchy.

Prep 15 min · Cook 0 min · Total 15 min · 2 servings · Easy

한국어로 보기 (Korean version)

Steps

1
Scrub the cucumbers with coarse salt and rinse, trim off both ends, and slice on the diagonal 0.3 cm thick. Thinly slice the onion.
The ends of a cucumber can be bitter, so trim off a generous 1 cm.
2
Sprinkle the cucumbers with the salt, let sit for 10 minutes, then lightly squeeze out the liquid.
Squeezing hard ruins the crunch, so press gently with your hands.
3
Mix the gochugaru, vinegar, sugar, minced garlic, and fish sauce first to make the dressing.
Dissolving the gochugaru in the fish sauce and vinegar first helps the color coat evenly.
4
Add the cucumber and onion and toss gently, then drizzle with sesame oil, sprinkle with sesame seeds, and serve right away.
It gets watery if dressed ahead, so toss it right before eating.

Substitutions

Instead of	Use	How
anchovy fish sauce	1 tsp guk-ganjang (soup soy sauce)	If you don't like the smell of fish sauce, use soup soy sauce instead and add salt to taste.
onion	a handful of Asian chives (buchu)	Cut the chives into 4 cm lengths, add them at the end, and toss only lightly.

Storing leftovers

Eat dressed cucumbers within 1 day, refrigerated. Serve cold without heating; if water collects, pour it off and sprinkle on more sesame seeds. Don't leave it at room temperature, and don't freeze it — it turns very watery.

Serve with

Rich, fatty dishes like samgyeopsal (pork belly) or jeyuk bokkeum (spicy stir-fried pork), bibim-guksu (spicy cold noodles), and doenjang jjigae (soybean paste stew).

Making more or less

Even when making more, don't salt the cucumbers longer than 10 minutes or they'll go soft.

Before you cook

The cucumber and onion are eaten raw, so wash them well under running water, and don't leave the dressed salad at room temperature for long.

Questions

How do I keep oi-muchim from getting watery?

Salt, sugar, and vinegar pull water out of the cucumber, so it keeps releasing liquid even after it's dressed. Salting it ahead to draw out water once helps, and if liquid collects, pour it off and add a little more gochugaru to bring the color back. For seedy cucumbers, you can scrape out the seeds before using.