Din Tai Fung Cucumber Salad
This Din Tai Fung cucumber salad tastes exactly like the restaurant's $9 plate, reverse-engineered from Din Tai Fung's own allergen guide and ingredient labels. There is no soy sauce and no vinegar in the real dish; the seasoning comes from a 90-minute dry brine of salt, sugar, and Totole mushroom bouillon that flavors the cucumbers from the inside. The dressing is four oils, including a clear Taiwanese-style chili oil cracked straight off the retail label of the version Din Tai Fung sells in Taiwan, plus their 5:1 canola and olive house oil blend you can mix with standard measuring spoons. With a store-bought chili oil, the whole dish comes together in about ten minutes of active work.
Servings 4 servings
Calories 250kcal
Equipment
- 1 Made-In Saucier (2 quart) For frying the chili oil aromatics
- 1 Deep Fry / Candy Thermometer The 300°F pour is temperature-gated; do not skip
- 1 Kitchen Scissors / Kitchen Shears For snipping the toasted whole chilies
- 1 Glass Mixing Bowls Heatproof bowl for the hot oil pour
- 1 Fine Mesh Strainer For straining the fried aromatics
- 1 Kitchen Scale The salt dose is a weight target (4.2g)
- 3 Deli Containers Chili oil storage and dry-brined coin holdover
Ingredients
The Cucumber and Dry-Brine
- 1 lb Persian cucumbers 5 to 6 cucumbers, sliced into ½ inch (13 mm) coins
- 1 ½ teaspoon kosher salt Diamond Crystal. True target is 4.2g by weight; Morton kosher use a scant 1 tsp, fine table salt about ¾ tsp. No rinse later, so dial up only.
- ½ teaspoon mushroom bouillon Totole granulated, the one with the suggestive-looking mushroom on the package
- ½ teaspoon white sugar a savory rounding note, not a sweetener. Start here and adjust up only.
The Chili Oil (Make Ahead)
- 1 cup vegetable oil soybean-based, matching Din Tai Fung's label; canola also works
- ½ cup Sichuan chili flakes Coarse Chinese or Taiwanese chili for chili oil (辣椒粉). Coarse crushed texture, NOT fine dust and NOT Tex-Mex chili powder. Gochugaru is an acceptable substitute.
- 5 g dried chili peppers about 4 to 6 medium dried red chilies. Not bird's eye. This is the heat dial; add more for a spicier oil.
- 2 scallions white and light green parts only, cut into 2-inch lengths
- 4 cloves garlic smashed
- 1 piece fresh ginger 1-inch knob, sliced into coins
- 2 star anise 1 to 2 pods
- 1 teaspoon green Sichuan peppercorns husks only, seeds picked out and discarded, lightly crushed. Goes in off the heat at the very end.
The House Oil Blend
- 2 ½ teaspoon canola oil combined with the olive oil this makes exactly the 1 tablespoon of 5:1 blend the dressing needs
- ½ teaspoon olive oil mild olive or EVOO; at one-sixth of the blend the grade is low-stakes
The Dressing and Garnish (To Order)
- 1 tablespoon house oil blend from above
- ½ teaspoon toasted sesame oil the dominant aroma note; strong, so it goes in smaller than the neutral blend
- 1 tablespoon chili oil the clear decanted top oil from above; store-bought works too (Lee Kum Kee or S&B La-Yu)
- 1 slice garlic one thin slice, tossed in then placed on top; never cooked
- 1 slice Fresno chili one thin piece, on top
Instructions
Make the Chili Oil (1+ Day Ahead)
- Combine the vegetable oil, scallions, garlic, ginger, and star anise in a small pot over low to medium-low heat. Fry gently for 10 to 20 minutes until the aromatics are golden and look dried out, not browned hard. This infuses their flavor into the oil and drives out the moisture that would cloud it.
- While the aromatics fry, toast the whole dried chilies in a dry pan over medium-low heat until fragrant and a shade darker, not blackened. Snip them up with scissors, seeds and all. Most of the heat comes from these, so add more if you want a spicier oil.
- Add the snipped chilies and the coarse chili flakes to a heatproof bowl and stir them together. Keep the green Sichuan peppercorn husks aside; they go in at the very end.
- When the aromatics are golden and papery, strain the oil through a fine mesh strainer and discard all the solids. They have given up their flavor; keep only the clear hot oil.
- Check the oil with a thermometer and wait until it reads 300°F (150°C). Pour it over the chili in thirds, stirring after each addition. Pouring a little at a time tempers the chili so the hot oil never scorches it, which keeps the oil red instead of brown.
- Once the sizzling dies down, stir in the crushed green Sichuan peppercorn husks. Their citrusy aroma comes from delicate compounds that cook off in hot oil, so they go in last; the numbing itself is not affected by heat.
- Let the oil steep for 12 to 24 hours. The solids settle and leave a layer of clear red oil on top; that clear layer is what dresses the salad. Reserve the sediment for other uses.
- Store the chili oil in the fridge and use it within about a month.
Dry-Brine the Cucumbers (Day Of)
- Slice the Persian cucumbers into ½ inch (13 mm) coins.
- Toss the coins with the kosher salt, mushroom bouillon, and sugar all at once, working the seasoning around evenly. This is the only salting. The salt sweats water out of the cucumbers, and the bouillon and sugar dissolve into that brine and season the coins from the inside.
- Cover and refrigerate for 1 to 2 hours; 90 minutes is the sweet spot. Give the coins one more toss partway through.
- Drain off the released liquid and pat the coins completely dry. Do not rinse: rinsing washes the dish's own seasoning down the drain, and the oils slide off a wet cucumber instead of clinging.
Assemble (To Order)
- Mix the house oil blend: 2 ½ teaspoons canola oil plus ½ teaspoon olive oil, the same 5:1 ratio commercial blends use. This makes exactly the 1 tablespoon the dressing needs.
- Add 14 dried coins and the single thin garlic slice to a bowl. Pour in the house oil blend, toasted sesame oil, and the clear chili oil, then toss until every coin has a light, even film. The raw garlic lightly perfumes the oil as you toss.
- Stack the coins into a pyramid: nine on the bottom, four in the middle, one on top.
- Place the tossed garlic slice on the tip of the pyramid.
- Pour the oil left in the bowl over the stack so it runs down and pools at the base as a clear red moat.
- Set the single thin Fresno coin on top and serve.
Video
Notes
No Soy Sauce, No Vinegar. The recipes online dress these cucumbers in soy sauce, vinegar, and sugar. Din Tai Fung's own menu allergen guide settles it: the cucumber salad is flagged for Soy and Sesame but has no Gluten flag, and brewed soy sauce contains wheat. The Soy flag is the soybean oil in the chili oil plus the soy protein in the mushroom bouillon; the Sesame flag is the sesame oil. Their ingredient panel does list sugar, but as a single small line, a savory rounding note rather than a sweet dressing.
The Single Salt Does Three Jobs. Salt, bouillon, and sugar go on together, once, up front. That one dose sweats water out of the cucumber, makes the thin brine that dissolves the bouillon and sugar, and seasons the dish. There is no rinse to correct an overshoot, so match the salt weight (4.2g per pound) and dial up only. Patting dry replaces what a rinse would do without flooding the seasoning away.
Why the Umami Goes in the Dry-Brine, Not the Oil. The savory compounds in the bouillon dissolve in water, not in oil. Dumped into the dressing they would sit as grit and taste of nothing. Once oil coats the cucumber it seals the surface and blocks anything water-soluble from getting in, which is why the order is seasoning first, oils last, and why an oil-only salad still reads fully seasoned.
The House Oil Blend. Din Tai Fung lists canola oil and olive oil as two adjacent line items, the signature of a single foodservice canola/olive blend bottle. Rather than buy a specialty bottle, mix your own at 5:1: half a teaspoon of olive oil per tablespoon of blend, so it scales cleanly with standard measuring spoons.
The Chili Oil Is Clear, Not Crisp. The target is the clear, strained infused oil of the Taiwanese and La-Yu lineage. Only the decanted top oil goes on the salad, which is why the plate shows a translucent red moat and no flakes. The fresh aromatics are fried and strained out hot, while the chili receives the oil as a 300°F pour-over: color extracts best around 130°C and scorches past about 180°C, so a brief pour beats sustained frying.
About the Color Powder. Use a coarse, bright-red Chinese or Taiwanese chili for chili oil (辣椒粉) from the Asian grocery. Despite the name, you want the coarse crushed texture, not a fine dust: the coarse grind gives clean color and settles clear, while fine powder scorches faster and clouds the oil. Two wrong products share the label: the Western Tex-Mex blend with cumin and oregano, and any finely milled chili dust. Korean gochugaru is an acceptable substitute.
Store-Bought Chili Oil Works. Lee Kum Kee chili oil is a solid pick, and S&B La-Yu is the closest match to the clear style made here. With a store-bought oil the whole dish takes about five to ten minutes of active work.
Make-Ahead and Storage. The chili oil is a make-ahead component: 24-hour rest, then refrigerate for up to a month. The dry-brined coins can be drained, patted dry, and held covered in the fridge for 2 to 3 days before dressing. The dressed salad is best eaten soon; the cucumber softens over hours.
Nutrition
Calories: 250kcal