Recipes for Cucumbers? How Do You Eat them?

[applestar]

Here's something I just made up today

Miso, ginger, garlic Braised (spicy) Overgrown Cucumbers

Heat a teaspoon of roasted sesame oil with 1-2 Tbs vegetable oil (I used safflower) medium-low. Add a sliver of fresh ginger. Peel overgrown cucumber in alternate strips, then slice into1/4-1/2" disks. Place directly in hot oil in a single layer -- it should be just enough to sizzle but not pop or spatter.

Scatter a large garlic clove sliced (heat should be low enough that garlic will toast slowly but not burn). Add about a TBS of koji miso -- cut into small bits in the oil with a knife and spread around. Add a whole fresh hot pepper (mine was a 1-1/2" Hot Lemon Drop.

Turn the cucumber slices when the bottom is translucent and caramelized. Keep an eye on the garlic and make sure they don't burn -- pull them out when toasted. Pull out the miso bits before they are burned also. They should be put on the serving plate and on top of the finished cucumbers as they are removed from the pan.

Keep moving the hot pepper around. Turn the cucumber on top of garlic and miso and sometimes swirl the pan to make sure nothing is sticking. Cucumber will benefit from being flipped two more times to soak up the flavored oil. Toss in about 1/8-1/4 tsp of whole cumin seeds towards the end. Season with salt if needed/desired, but the miso should be salty enough.

Cucumbers are done when the entire slice is translucent with nice caramelization going on on both surfaces. Scrape up all the garlic, miso, and toasted cucumber seeds before they burn and scatter on top of the cucumbers.

I thought these were great with cooked brown rice.

[Sweyn]

sliced cukes, plain yogurt, fresh chopped mint leaves.
let stand 15 minutes or more.

Sounds like Lunch or, maybe, side dish at Dinner.

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

That's nice. It can also be done with dried mint, instead of the fresh kind. It's a nice accompaniment with lunch or dinner.

[valley]

Like cynthia says, with lots of added crushed garlic.

Richard

[applestar]

I'm going to try to make Korean Cucumber Kimchi today

[Sweyn]

Like cynthia says, with lots of added crushed garlic.

Richard

Finely chopped or minced, in plain yoghurt, is nice. It can be with or without, chopped cucumbers and mint.

[WinglessAngel]

Since being married I discovered hubby has a love of Korean food and also likes cukes. I found him a recipe for Korean Cucumber Salad. Though not like a salad in the truist sense of the word it is vinegar based but the flavor is offset by a small amount of sugar, sesame oil, sesame seeds and oyster sauce (<--yep you read that right lol). Made with cukes and onion and is basically a quick pickle, an hour in the fridge and it's ready to eat. The longer though, over night, is even better. I make it once in a while for him but I'm hoping this year I can actually get some home grown cukes to make it with for him. I'm not a huge fan of pickles made with cukes per say but I do love pickled veggies (weird I know). But this 'salad' I do enjoy, likely due to the flavorings added and not the typical sweet or dill flavors. My recipe below if you want to try it.

Oi Muchim (Korean Cucumber Salad:

1 Large Onion sliced very thinly
4-5 Large Cukes peeled, deseeded and sliced thinly (Asian or regular cukes, whichever you have is fine)
1/4 Cup plus 1/8 Cup Warm Water
1 1/2 Cup Cider Vinegar (Rice Wine works well too)
3 TableSpoons Oyster Sauce
1 1/2 TableSpoons Sesame Oil
1 1/2 TableSpoons Sesame Seeds
3 teaspoons Salt
3 teaspoons sugar

Mix everything but the onion and cukes well into a large bowl and then add the cukes and onions. Mix well about every 15 minutes for at least an hour while it sits in the fridge. It's ready after an hour but over night works even better. Just give it a good stir before going to bed and before eating.

[Rairdog]

I will be fermenting pickles this year. I also plan to experiment with Kimchi type recipes using bok choi and cucumbers along with some Michihili cabbage. I am trying to ferment and blend garden veggies as the ripen. Other veggies will include carrots, Kohlrabi, radish, chard stalks and whatever else has a good water/sugar content.

[imafan26]

Cucumber kim chee
cucumber dip
Cucumber and carrot namasu (Japanese pickle condiment)
Cucumber sandwiches (for high tea)
California roll (sushi)
Cucumber and Avocado salad
Somen salad
creamy cucumber and dill salad dressing
Thai cucumber salad
Minted watermelon and cucumber salad
Smoothie ( apple mint cucumber, or blueberry cucumber) You can hide anything in a smoothie with the right companions
Use the cucumbers slices to get rid of dark circles under your eyes.
Garden pasta salad
Add some diced cucumber to tuna or chicken salad
Tzatziki sauce for veggie dips
Add minced cucumber instead of water chestnuts to spinach dip
gazpacho
Mexican cucumber salad
cucumber salsa
Taegu Ocean Salad with Linguini
http://cookinghawaiianstyle.com/index.p ... d-linguini

[Gary350]

I never grow cucumbers. We don't eat cucumbers they taste like melons that are not ripe. We don't eat pickles either. I like mustard pickle relish on hotdogs. My mother and grandmother use to make sliced cucumbers in vinegar they were good. If I get a restaurant salad with a slice of cucumber I will eat it. We don't like cucumbers I stir fry or any other food. If I could find a good cucumber recipe that we like we might eat them. It is amazing these things are $2 each at the grocery store. We like cucumber sauce at the Greek restaurant and cucumber salad dressing.

[digitS']

I have very little experience canning or pickling. Last fall, I came across a recipe for refrigerator dills that looked good.

Fresh cucumbers are an important part of my garden harvest. I might splash them with vinegar and sprinkle them with salt and pepper. Maybe not. If they are just peeled, I'm happy . Pickles. I like dills but eat very few. The other pickle types, I don't care for.

It seems that sweet pickles are the most popular for refrigeration. I tried a recipe for refrigerator dills a couple of years ago that were too sweet for me to eat. I am sure I'll never be eating lots of pickles but I found a recipe last fall and I'm still finishing one jar and have one more to go. They seem fine!

Remove the blossom end of the cucumbers and stuff in a jar. For each quart of cucumbers, Add:
2 cloves garlic,
1 tsp mustard seeds,
2 tsp dill seed,
2 tsp sugar,
2 tbsp canning salt, and
a hot pepper

Mix 1 1/2 cups of white vinegar with 2 cups of filtered water and bring to a boil.

Fill the jars with the boiling vinegar/water mix. Cover with lids and give the jars a shake. Refrigerate. Shake every now then over a week or two and begin to sample.

Steve

[imafan26]

I like cucumbers. However, while I love Diva cucumbers, most people here prefer the Japanese/ English cucumbers because they are generally crisper. If I have too many, I have no problem giving them away. Kai Choy cabbage, few takers. Chayote, after a while it is what is used to be like trying to give away extra zucchini. Eggplant, I have a lot, but there are a lot of takers they just prefer the purple ones to the green.
I actually like cucumber dip and cucumber raita on crackers or as a veggie dip. I do seed cucumbers and add it to somen salad or to mixed green salads.

[digitS']

Diva? I had trouble with Diva but it may have been a bad cucumber year. They are a little hardier than melons but not many plants can thrive through weeks of just-above-freezing nights and 50°f afternoon highs. Too cool for a cucumber and they will have a poor production later. I recently wised up and set out additional plants the first week of July.

Beit Alpha types like Diva are great - especially for snacking in the garden. I've wondered if they do not have the best "visual" appeal because they are slightly wrinkled. Beit Alphas look a little too long off the vine even while they are still on the vine! Surely if we can put up with warts and spines on some of the others, we can overlook the wrinkling on these wonderful little guys. Shows character, don't ya know ...

Steve

[kayjay]

Cuke sandwiches and homemde tzatziki are my standbys. I also love what I call faux-sushi. I take those little seaweed snack packs and wrap them around some combination of cream cheese, cucumber, avocado, and/or smoked salmon.

My biggest use of excess cukes is to slice and dehydrate them. They're a fantastic low-cal dipper/potato chip alternative. You could season them, but I don't bother. I guess if I was going to, I'd just sprinkle them with cajun spice or something like that. Most of the distinct cucumber flavour disappears, so what you're left with is quite mild.