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In Season: Cucumbers

Posted by Grace Kang, August 1, 2009 at 4:00 PM

20090801cucumbers.jpg

Photograph from foodista on Flickr

With summer in full swing, my cucumber intake has increased to alarming levels. In salads, soups, or just as a raw snack, the crisp crunch they add to a dish instantly cools me down, a brief relief from my steam room of an apartment. When at the market, look for firm specimens with a medium to dark green color. I prefer the smaller ones as they're less bitter and be sure to stay away from any yellow bits. Store them covered in plastic wrap and refrigerated for about a week or so (avoid the crisper, as it's too cold). If you find yourself unable to eat one more cucumber and want to use it up, there's always the old trick of putting a slice over each of your eyes. I know--it's such a teen dream magazine tip, but it actually feels great and with the humidity these days, any relief will do. [After the jump, a cucumber recipe blast.]

Cucumber Recipes

9 Comments:

Slice about a quart of peeled cukes thin, salt lightly, and let sit for half an hour or so. Drain, rinse, drain.

Mix
1 cup sour cream,
1/2 tsp sugar,
1 tsp cider vinegar,
2T minced onion
lots of black pepper

Let the cukes pickle in this mix for half an hour at least. They will crisp up nicely. The leftover dressing, if any, makes a wonderful salad dressing (or a very nice slurpy drink, truth be told). You may want fewer cukes to this amount of dressing.

lemonfair at 5:11PM on 08/01/09

Cucumbers are my absolute favorite vegetable. My dad grew an Italian melon that's very similar to a cuke this year, it's green and fuzzy, I can't remember the name...

embolini9 at 10:08PM on 08/01/09

My dad used to make "pickled" cucumbers when I was a kid. He would just slice up a ton of cucumbers, throw them in a huge Tupperware container with a lid, fill the container with vinegar until the cucumbers were covered, and then pop in the fridge for a day or so to flavor the cuke's. For those who this was too sour for, he'd combine a mixture of water/vinegar to soften the potency. When we ate this at home, we would just open the tupperware container and eat them with a fork, but when I make it now for my husband, he prefers to salt and pepper them before eating. It's easy, refreshing and delicious.

cickert at 11:00AM on 08/02/09

My mother always made pickled cucumbers in the summer ~ from my dad's garden. Sliced cukes, sliced onion, white vinegar, s&p and a little water to soften the vinegar.

I make them the same way, but I also add a little olive oil. Keep covered and refrigerated, except when eating.

duncan1205 at 12:46PM on 08/02/09

My family also made vats of the sour cream cucumbers-and-onions every summer; they usually added fresh dill.

When I discovered just today that my dill tastes remarkably like diesel fuel, I opted to try a little toasted & ground cardamom seed. Nice, and they went very nicely with the Indian food we had for dinner. I'll do them that way again, definitely.

kikihellman at 7:05PM on 08/02/09

I pickled 12 quarts of cukes today. My recipe is very simple- The brine is1 part apple cider vinegar to two parts water, salt and a pinch of sugar. Each jar gets a few smashed garlic cloves, a pinch of alum, peppercorns, coriander seeds, mustard seeds, bay leaves, and fennel seeds. A sprig of thyme is nice too!

jlhmm at 8:20PM on 08/02/09

a few years ago my plants took off and i had to get creative. here are a few that I didn't read here yet:

grilled. this is a simple delish thing you can eat as is or add to all sorts of pasta or veggie salads

process a ton of them with the grater on the food processor. mix that with your fav fresh herbs, scallions, etc. stir into whipped butter or creamcheese for a yummy spread. chill the juice with mint for a refreshing beverage. good for cocktails too

cucumbers can stand in for a lot of the curbit-like veggies called for in indian recipies that are hard to find in the US

erunuevo at 9:54PM on 08/02/09

I just discovered Spicy Quick Dill Pickles, and we're going through a quart a day around here now: http://postmodernfeeding.blogspot.com/2009/08/spicy-quick-dill-pickles.html

sarahbeam at 8:57AM on 08/04/09

Oh lemonfair! thanks for the blast from the past. I saw a very similar recipe on "The Victory Garden" when I was about 10, but my mom was not "into" dairy products so I never had it.

All these ideas are great! I'm nihon-jin and have no issues about eating salted cukes & leftover rice FOR DAYS! Also a big fan of cuke raita on any grilled protein and all curried items.

mauserati at 3:02AM on 08/07/09

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