Barbecued hoisin chicken skewers with smashed cucumber salad

We often associate hoisin sauce with duck, but this rich, sweet and salty sauce lends itself to all kinds of ingredients, both for dipping and for cooking with. I especially like marinating meats in hoisin. Here, chicken is marinated in a mixture of hoisin, garlic, soy, rice vinegar and rice wine – then skewered and grilled on the barbecue. It's served alongside a crunchy and refreshing cucumber and peanut salad. An ingenious trick I’ve picked up from my Chinese mum is to smash and salt the cucumber first; you’ll find they absorb the flavours of the hot and sour dressing much more effectively