Originally stuffed with pork, these cucumber cups are also great when filled with chicken. The recipe was by Florence Lin, published in her cookbook, Chinese Regional Cookbook (Hawthorn, 1975). It has been gently adapted and modified below.
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Chinese
Keyword: chicken, cucumber, stuffed
Servings: 4
Ingredients
2large English cucumbers,or 3 slicing cucumbers (about 2 ½ pounds total)
½poundground chicken,pork, or turkey
1tablespoonwater
2teaspoonsShaoxing rice wine or dry sherry (see Notes)
¾teaspoonsoy sauce
2teaspoonscornstarch
1teaspoonsalt
¼teaspoonsugar
16small dice carrot, about ¼ inch(optional)
2tablespoonsneutral oil or garlic oil from stir-fried cucumber recipe (see link in Notes)
1cuplightly salted chicken broth
½teaspooncornstarch diluted in 1 tablespoon water
Instructions
If you like, peel the cucumbers fully or partially to leave green stripes on the flesh. With English cucumbers, the skin is tender to eat. Trim the ends then cut each cucumber crosswise into 1 ½ inch-long sections. There should be about 16. Use a demitasse spoon or similar small teaspoon to dig out the seeds of each cucumber section -- but don’t dig through to the other end. Leave ¼ to ½ inch of the seedy center in the cup. Use the bowl or the spoon and if the handle’s tip is round, use it to scoop and smooth the inner well. The resulting cucumber section should be cup-like to hold the filling. Discard the seeds and dump out any water from the cucumber cup.
In a small bowl, stir together the ground meat, water, rice wine, soy sauce, cornstarch, ½ teaspoon salt, and sugar. Stir in one direction to mix very well into a firm mixture. Reuse the spoon that you scooped the cucumber cups with to stuff the filling into each cucumber. Top with a piece of carrot.
Heat a large, deep skillet (or sauteuse pan) over medium heat. Add the oil, and when barely shimmering, add the filled cucumbers, meat side up. Gently fry for 2 minutes. Add the chicken broth and remaining ½ teaspoon salt. Bring to a boil, cover, then cook, then lower the heat to medium-low and cook for about 20 minutes or until the cucumbers are tender. At the 8 and 15 mark baste with the cooking liquid. Poke the cucumber with a knife tip to gauge doneness.
When done there should be about ⅓ to ½ cup of liquid left in the pan. Turn off the heat before transferring the cooked cucumber cups to a serving dish. Reheat the pan to a gentle simmer, add the cornstarch slurry, and when thickened (about 20 seconds), pour over the cucumbers. Serve hot.