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Thursday, June 24, 2010

Cucumbers – They’re What’s for Salad

Despite the lack of rainfall lately or maybe in spite of it, the cukes062310 (1) cucumbers and zucchini have been multiplying nearly overnight. For the past couple of mornings, Grenville has come in the house loaded with lots of green torpedoes, otherwise known as cukes and zukes. Of course, pickling the cukes would be a solution, but in case Grenville forgot to mention it, there’s a  jarred cukes in the pantry from last year’s pickling – enough to last the rest of this year and beyond.

We’ve been gifting them because we can’t eat them fast enough – and don’t think we haven’t noticed that some neighbors pretend not to be home or claim not to like cucumbers. The solution? LOTS of salads. (And, Grenville makes a great cuke sandwich with mayo and white bread.) The nice thing about salads is that all can be made ahead and  taste better when chilled. So, If anyone reading has a favorite (and easy) cuke salad recipe, please post in a reply.  This is a favorite of ours
Sour Cream Cucumbers
This is an easy recipe for an abundance of summer cukes. As with any recipe, there are options (see a few below).
  • 1 medium cucumbers, thinly sliced, peel first if desired
  • 1 small onion, thinly sliced (Vidalia or red onion)
  • ½ C sour cream
  • 1 tbsp vinegar
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • ½ tsp salt  & pepper (to taste)
Dry cucumber slices with paper towels. Combine cucumbers and onion. Generously season with salt and pepper. Toss and let sit 10 minuets, drain any excess liquids.
Stir together sour cream, vinegar, sugar and salt. Toss with  cukes.cuke salad062310 Cover and refrigerate until well  chilled; stir a few times while marinating. Before serving, season with salt and pepper to taste, if needed.

Options: Some folks peel the cukes before slicing (we don’t). Add a couple tbsp of mayo and chopped scallions and/or garlic. And to reduce calories, substitute plain yogurt in place of sour cream.

7 comments:

Anvilcloud said...

I am one who much prefers zukes (thanks for that) to cukes. Enjoy the bounty, however.

possum said...

Oh, excellent recipe... I especially like cooking to music... Now let me see, somewhere I think I have a CD with minuets, but in order to get 10 of them I will have to hit the repeat button. OK, I can do that! Beethoven. Yes, Beethoven is sometimes good to cook by...
BTW, if you run out of cukes, let me know!

Anonymous said...

And they were deliciousis... BUT the company thought so to so now the Princess has to make more.
Tonight is the big feast of all the leftovers from the week.

HermitJim said...

I'm blessed (cursed) with a multitude of cucumbers as well! I've eaten them raw, in salads, marinated with sliced onion in vinegar, and as a side with sliced tomatoes with everything!

Been giving a lot of them away as well, but am running out of people to gift them to!

Guess the next step is to abandon them on the doorstep of the neighbors!

I've never tried a cuke sandwich...guess I better do that!

Anonymous said...

Jim,
Beware of abandoning them on the doorstep of the neighbors!
I tried it last year with zuc's at 3 am. Cops almost arrested me for carrying an unlicenced veggie weapon!!!!! The zuc was over 12 inchs.... may have even been a 'deadly weapon'. Just was threatened by our friend Possum with more cuc's.
Seriously, a cuc sandwich on doughy white bread needs a lot of Mayo and a touch of salt....Yuuummmmyyyy!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Jim,
New thought..... make pickles... we still have 18 jars to go from last year ;-]. They make great Christmas presents,,, like fruit cake!!!!

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

That´s a problem with zuccini´s and cucumbers. When You are successful growing them You really get to many :-) :-)
Have a great Midsummers eve now!
Christer.