Pucker up

Leave it to Hilo people to make a good dish even better. Barbara Kai Takase takes this pickled cucumber dish (called namasu in Japanese) to potlucks and people love her innovation — adding the Chinese salted seed, li hing mui, to the crunchy cucumber salad. Of course, if you are watching your salt, you wouldn’t eat this, but if you aren’t, it is a refreshing summer salad. Here is my interpretation of her dish. Cut unpeeled cucumbers into thin coins and draw out their water with salt. Mix vinegar with sugar until dissolved, then combine the squeezed cucumbers. Add li hing mui, refrigerate for at least two hours to extract that li hing mui taste and get ready to pucker up.

Li Hing Mui Namasu

Ingredients:

• About 4 Persian cucumbers such as Keiki cucumbers

• 1 teaspoon rock salt

• 1/4 cup rice vinegar

• 1/4 cup sugar

• 6 white li hing mui

Directions:

Cut unpeeled cucumbers into 1/8to 1/4-inch coins, which should be about 3 cups, add salt and mix in a bowl. Let stand for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, combine vinegar and sugar in a bowl and stir until combined. Drain the cucumbers and squeeze them gently to remove excess water. Add to vinegar and sugar mixture. Mix; add li hing mui. Refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight and serve cold.

Makes about 2 1/2 cups.

Lynette Lo Tom has written three cookbooks and loves hearing about home cooks. Visit lynettecooks.com for more information.