Enjoying Summer Cucumbers

Cucumbers Español: Pepinos Português: Pepinos (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We are finally getting to that point in the summer when it seems like we have more fresh, tasty produce than we know what to do with. At this time of year, everyone rhapsodizes about tomatoes, and of course, nothing can beat a fresh tomato straight out of the garden. But I want to recognize another summer favorite: the cucumber.

Most of the year, I avoid eating cucumbers, because I find them bland, mushy and generally without personality. But when I started growing my own cucumbers, I discovered that fresh-picked cucumbers are subtly sweet and snappy. (If you don’t have a garden, cucumbers should be abundant at the farmers market about now.)

To bring out their best flavor, I try to choose cucumbers that are still fairly small. I cut them in half lengthwise and scoop out most of the seeds with a spoon. Then I slice them into rounds or sticks and sprinkle them with coarse salt. Let them sit for few minutes in a colander and drain off any excess liquid. They make a terrific snack just by themselves.

I have two favorite ways of dressing up cucumbers. Almost everyone likes pickles, so I like to reproduce that flavor by quickly marinating cucumbers. These slices make a great appetizer or a side for grilled foods.

Combine 3 cups of thinly sliced cucumbers with 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar, 2 tablespoons olive oil, the grated zest and juice of 1 lime, and salt and pepper to taste. If you prefer some sweet with your sour, add 1 teaspoon sugar. Cover and refrigerate for about 30 minutes. Just before serving, add 2 tablespoons fresh dill or basil, minced, and toss gently. 

This simple salad is just a starting point, and it is amenable to all sorts of additions. Some of my favorites include thinly sliced red onion, minced jalapeno, diced avocado or tomato wedges.

A creamy cucumber salad is another way to showcase this vegetable. This recipe is similar to an Indian condiment called raita, used to cool spicy foods. Either eat this as a side salad, or dice the cucumbers and use it as a dip or as a condiment for fish, grilled chicken and even burgers.

Slice or dice 1 medium cucumber. Combine it with ¾ cup plain yogurt (or substitute sour cream, if yogurt isn’t to your taste). Stir in 1 small minced garlic clove, 1 tablespoon olive oil and the leaves from 2 mint sprigs, thinly sliced. For a little spice, you could add a pinch of cayenne or red pepper flakes. 

Enjoy those veggies!

Some Old Favorites: Grilling Out on the New Deck

A recent cooking challenge that I haven’t gotten a chance to post about yet was to resurrect some old favorites. I chose backyard barbecue favorites in honor of our new, expanded, gorgeous deck, and to give my husband a chance to cook for a change.

The menu was: grilled turkey burgers, mini baked potatoes and quick pickles. I have posted the turkey burger recipe before. This is the only turkey burger recipe I have found that results in juicy, tasty burgers rather than dried-out hockey pucks. Giving credit where credit is due, the original recipe came from Sara Foster’s Casual Cooking.

That cookbook was also the source for the mini baked potatoes idea. You don’t even need a recipe for these. Just substitute medium-sized Yukon gold potatoes for russets. Poke holes in the top and bake at 400 degrees for 35-40 minutes. Load them up with all your favorite fixings. Despite being so simple, this is a genius idea, because often a full-sized baked potato is just too much.

Finally, the quick pickles came from another Sara Foster book that I’ve been featuring a lot on this blog lately: Sara Foster’s Southern Kitchen. (Expect a full-fledged review very soon.) Even though this was a new recipe I was trying, it qualifies as an old favorite because I’ve been making some variant of these pickles for years. It’s a great way to eat garden cucumbers, and it also works for zucchini.

Here’s my version of a quick recipe for quick pickles. For 1 pound of cucumber slices, combine 2 cups water and 1 cup white wine vinegar. Add 1 tablespoon coarse salt, plus fresh dill, red pepper flakes and/or sliced garlic, as desired. You can also throw in diced red onion, if you like. Let the pickles marinate at least 1 hour. These pickles keep about 1 week in the fridge.

Classic Cucumber Salad

I made this for dinner last night with the last of our garden cucumbers. This quick marinade is probably my favorite way to eat cucumbers. You can vary the herbs and citrus to suit your menu; for instance, basil is delicious in this salad. Do not omit the small amount of sugar, though, as it really helps the flavors shine.

The original recipe is from Sara Foster’s Casual Cooking, but as the title says, it is a Southern classic.

Classic Cucumber Salad

Serves 4 to 6

• 1 cucumber, thinly sliced (about 3 cups)
• 3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill, cilantro, basil or mint
• Grated zest and juice of 1 lime or lemon
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• Salt to taste

Combine all of the ingredients in a medium bowl and toss to mix. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for about 30 minutes to chill.

Related Articles

• Cool Summer Cucumber Dishes (well.blogs.nytimes.com)
• Cucumber Salads For A Warm Summer Days By GreenChefs Golubka (gliving.com)

An End-of-Summer Menu + Refrigerator Pickles

I could tell that summer is winding down even if I didn’t know the date. The humidity and record temperatures have thankfully eased off. The garden is looking bedraggled and is only spitting out the odd zucchini at this point. Winter squash and root vegetables are becoming prevalent at the farmers market.

Last night, I thought I’d celebrate the last days of summer with an end-of-summer tribute meal. I tried to pull as many of the ingredients as possible from the remnants of my garden, focusing on herbs, tomatoes and cucumbers. Here’s the menu:

• Refrigerator pickles (see below)
• Bruschetta with fresh tomatoes and basil
• Eggplant broiled and marinated in a mixture of parsley, capers, balsamic vinegar and olive oil
• Chicken marinated in a mixture of red wine, mustard, rosemary, basil and olive oil, and pan-roasted

It was an excellent meal — almost like a picnic at the dinner table. Everything was good, but the refrigerator pickles, a recipe from Sara Foster’s Fresh Every Day, were particularly easy and tasty, so I wanted to share the recipe with you (with my few minor adaptations).

Refrigerator Pickles

• 1 cup apple cider vinegar
• ¼ cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon sea salt
• ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 4 to 5 small cucumbers, sliced into ⅛-inch-thick rounds — You could use pickling cucumbers, but I used the regular kind, and they worked fine.
• 2 scallions, sliced thinly

Combine the vinegar, sugar, salt, black pepper, cloves, bay leaves, red pepper flakes and dill seed and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Layer the cucumbers and scallions in a quart jar or 2 pint jars. Press them tightly into the jar. Pour the liquid mixture over to cover. Place the lid on the jar, shake it well and refrigerate at least 4 hours. These pickles will keep in the refrigerator for at least 1 month.

Related Articles

• Cucumbers from the Garden (simplycooking.wordpress.com)

Cucumbers from the Garden

Everyone knows that tomatoes from the garden taste the best. They are warm, sweet and taste like sunshine on a plate. Nothing you can buy in the grocery store can come close to tomatoes you grow yourself.

This year, we are growing cucumbers for the first time, and I have discovered that the same is true of them. Usually, I can take or leave cucumbers. But the cucumbers from our garden actually have flavor. They are cool, crisp and herbaceous, great with just a touch of salt or lightly pickled. After eating my own homegrown cucumbers, I think I’ll have to give up supermarket cukes altogether.

My favorite way to prepare cucumbers is to marinate the slices in vinegar and seasonings. I keep a bowl of these “pickles” in the fridge and snack on them guilt-free before dinner or throw them into salads. This isn’t a recipe so much as a set of guidelines. Feel free to experiment.

Lightly Pickled Cucumbers

Peel and slice the cucumbers. For 1 lb. of cucumber slices, combine 2 cups water and 1 cup white wine vinegar. Add 1 tbsp. coarse salt plus fresh dill, hot red pepper flakes and sliced garlic, as desired. Let the cucumbers marinate at least 1 hour. Keeps up to 1 week in the refrigerator.

If I have too many cucumbers to eat fresh, I plan to make freezer pickles. Here’s a recipe from Sidewalk Shoes.

A Big Batch o’ Gazpacho

There’s no denying it. Despite the hotter-than-Hades August that seemed like it would never end, fall has arrived. The cool, crisp days with no humidity almost make you forget that we’re still in the midst of a record drought. Who needs rain when you have glorious blue sky and it’s 72 degrees out?

So why am I posting a quintessential summer recipe just when fall is upon us? Well, I spent all summer eating gazpacho, and I finally nailed down the recipe to my satisfaction, so I wanted to share it. If you’re lucky and happen to have one last harvest of tomatoes — as I’m still hoping for — gazpacho is a great way to use them up.

Gazpacho is the national soup of Spain, but as it’s gotten more popular, the name has been applied to almost any cold soup. For my tastes, gazpacho requires three things to properly be called “gazpacho.” First, it should be made with vinegar, preferably a good sherry vinegar; the taste impact is worth the extra cost. Second, it should have a base of tomatoes and cucumbers; other vegetables can be added, but these should not be omitted. Finally, it should be thickened with French-style bread. I used to make gazpacho without the bread, but the result was more like a chunky V-8. Adding the bread gives it a wonderfully thick, smooth texture that transforms it into soup.

Aside from those rules, gazpacho is a versatile recipe that can accommodate whatever you have in the crisper. Enjoy.

Gazpacho

Time to make: 15 minutes + chilling time
Yields: 2 servings

1. Combine in a food processor or blender:
   • 2-3 tomatoes, diced, some reserved for garnish
   • 1 cucumber, peeled and diced, some reserved for garnish
   • 1 red bell pepper, diced, some reserved for garnish (optional)
   • 1 shallot or ¼ red onion, minced (optional)
   • 1 mild chile, minced (optional)
   • salt and pepper to taste
   • 1-2 slices French-style bread (day-old is okay), crust removed, torn into chunks
   • 2 tbsp. sherry vinegar or red wine vinegar
   • 2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
   • 1 cup water or tomato juice
2. Blend until smooth.
3. Chill about 1 hour.
4. Before serving, garnish with the reserved vegetables and other garnishes as desired (croutons, scallions, hard-boiled eggs and avocado all make good garnishes).
5. Drizzle with a little more olive oil to serve.

Sweet & Sour Cucumbers

Marinated cucumbers are one of my favorite starters — refreshing, but not filling. They can be made a few hours ahead of time and chilled in the refrigerator. This is a milder version that pairs well with Asian foods. The recipe is very versatile and can be made sweeter or hotter to taste, so please experiment!

Sweet and Sour Cucumbers

Serves: 2-4
Time to make: at least 1 hour
Keeps: up to 1 week in the refrigerator

Combine in a bowl:

• 1 cucumber, peeled and thinly sliced
• ½ cup rice vinegar
• ¼ cup water
• ½ tbsp. fresh ginger, minced
• 1 clove garlic, thinly sliced
• 2 scallions, thinly sliced
• red pepper flakes to taste
• 1 tbsp. sugar
• 1 tsp. coarse salt

Let marinate for at least 1 hour. Drain before serving.