Vegetables

This recipe is my version of a dish my grandfather used to make. Can be served at either room temperature or cold out of the frig.

This is my take on a Chinese-style spicy cucumber salad. I had some leftover veggies in the frig (daikon radish, carrots and a red bell pepper) and didn't want them to go to waste, so decided to add them to this dish. Super easy and even better after marinating for at least 24 hours before serving.

This sweet and sour pickled cabbage is a traditional condiment in Taiwan. There's no oil and just a hint of chili for a very mild spice kick. And for those in the know, it's also a staple and must-have side with stinky tofu. Green cabbage, readily available in most supermarkets, works great for this recipe. But if you can find "Taiwan" green cabbage in an Asian market, I'd go with that. Very refreshing and yum!

A great summer appetizer since cucumbers taste great whether cold out of the frig or at room temperature. I adapted this recipe from Huang Sau Yen's Chinese Culinary Arts for Today , one of my mom's Taiwanese cookbooks from the 1970s, which she bequeathed to me when I came to California in '83 .  The Szechuan peppercorns are what distinguish this dish with their unique, aromatic, slightly tingly peppery flavor.

I adapted this recipe from two sources: Fuchsia Dunlop's Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking and Mrs. Chiang's Szechwan Cookbook . It's a classic cold dish/appetizer which consists of sliced fresh cucumbers, minced garlic, chili oil, vinegar, sesame oil, sugar and soy sauce with the addition of ground Szechuan peppercorns, which make the flavors distinctively 'Szechuanese.' The peppercorns are uniquely 'spicy' with a numbing rather than chili-hot quality to them.