Cucumber

Have you eaten any cucumbers lately?

You should give them a try.

Most of my life I have eaten them only as either a salad addition or as single slices with salt. Join with me in broadening the cucumber horizon!

Breakfast (or Snack!)
Cucumber sticks. They're like carrot sticks or celery sticks, but cucumber.

I came up with this mostly out of laziness. I had been reading about making sushi. Sushi often has vegetables cut up as thin match sticks. Remarkably thin. I didn't really want to cut anything so small. (I'm already a bit of a safety hazard. Sharp knives moving quickly sounds like disaster.) Outside of sushi, I couldn't really see a use for match stick cucumber. But they did do another thing I'd never seen done to a cucumber before. They scooped out the innards. Shocking!

How to make Cucumber Sticks:
First of course wash your veggies.

Next slice the cucumber in half lengthwise.

Then take a spoon and scoop out the seeds. You'll be left with two troughs. At this point, because my cutting skills are limited, I like to cut each half into half, widthwise. Now you have four quarters. Well done.

Tilt one quarter on it's side. Skin side down. Cut lengthwise into ¼ inch to ½ inch planks. Continue with the remaining quarters.

Play around with the plank width to determine the size you prefer.

I like to cut these up the night before and wrap them in a damp paper towel sealed in a plastic container.

They make an excellent breakfast during the car ride to work. Leftovers can be added to lunch, or eaten as a snack on the car ride home.

I've tried seasoning the cucumber sticks with a few things, but none of the seasoning really improved upon the original.

Cucumber as Beverage?
I have learned that caffeine, sugar and I don't mix well together. Sadly consuming significant quantities of caffeine-free, sugar-free sodas also has a deleterious effect. While having a delightful effervescence, plain seltzer water can quickly become monotonous.

Water is good. But, apparently not enticing enough to keep me from dehydrating in the hot Florida sun. It seems that when I'm working outside in the Summer's heat I manage to forget about adequate hydration. Even when I bring a full water bottle and carry it around with me.

An idea recommended to be by a co-worker (thanks, Cecilia!) has worked wonders!

Cucumber Water
Adding just a slice or two of fresh cucumber, lends a delightful flavor to a glass of water.

Not only do I end up drinking more at each sip, but as the favor fades in the mouth, I am reminded to take more frequent sips.

At the picnic table you can add several slices to a pitcher of ice water. Very refreshing. I'm particularly fond of cucumber, but you'll get pleasant results with a variety of fruits, herbs and spices.

Condiment(Pickles need not apply)
This is a taste sensation I learned about from my forays into Indian cooking (thanks, Vani!).

Cucumber Yogurt
Follow the directions above for the cucumber sticks, until the part were you have quarters.

Then cut your quarters lengthwise in half. Next dice all segments widthwise until you have lots of diced cucumber.

Mix with plain yogurt.

Serve this cooling condiment with spice Indian dishes or as a sour cream substitute in Mexican dishes.

If your not afraid of the heat, you can add jalapeño or green hot pepper to the mix. Just when you think your going to get some nice cooling yogurt, you bite into a pepper. Heck ya!

I haven't tried it as a dip yet. However, I think this would also make a great chip or celery dip.

Madhur Jaffrey, has a more sophisticated (aka: time consuming) version of this in her amazing book, “World Vegetarian”. Hers involves making a 'yogurt cheese' by draining the yogurt of it's moisture, and includes cucumber, dill, and garlic.

Botanical niftiness.
Cucumbers belong to the Cucurbitaceae Family. This Family also includes squash and melons.

Cucumbers are generally fertilized by bubble bees and honey bees. Inadequate pollination will result in deformed cucumbers. To optimize the number of perfectly formed cucumbers, beehives will be brought into the fields just before the flowers bloom.

For more technical information on cucumbers check out wikipedia.

Related Posts

Raspberry

Monday morning I watched the Sun come up will I drove into work. A beautiful sunrise. A sunrise made all the better by my breakfast. Raspberries. The Sensual Delight. The Raspberry is a feast for the senses. When ripe, raspberries have a glowing red hew. Their scent is distinctly sweet and floral. Their delicate flesh is followed by the rough crunch of seeds. They have an acidic bite with a lingering sweet taste, as though you had sucked the nectar from a rose. Were these ears able to catch the sound of raspberries growing, the brier taking nourishment from earth and sky, there could be no doubt of its dulcet tune. A Lesson in Mindfulness. I remember, growing up on my parent’s farm in the foothills of North Carolina, picking berries on the hillsides. My parents built their house on a brier patch and the berries emerged every year. To pick fruit from a thorned plant, is a challenge. To be sure, losing a bit of blood to them is a fair trade for the bounty you receive, but how to avoid the thorns? Using gloves wasn’t helpful. Any thick enough to block the thorns would be too thick to keep the fruit from being crushed. You have to become very observant of the position of your hand in relation to the plants. Your movements and the movements of the plants as they turn in the wind. Staying quite in mind and concentrating on the task at hand. The moment my mind wandered I’d get jabbed. The Feast. Many of those berries never made it into the collection basket. Yum! :) Those that did make it back to the house would wind-up in many tasty recipes. When cooking with berries simple recipes seem best.

Breakfast:

Head out to the berry patch and start picking. Breakfast is berries! If your not full after picking a basket full try making yogurt-fruit cups. When I have frozen raspberries I like to mash them with a little honey or splenda. Next pour plain yogurt on top. Then just mix everything together. This is usually as complex as I make it, but you could add granola, and a host of other yogurt toppings as well. This is an excellent replacement for the high-fructose corn syrup laden fruit yogurts found in grocery store cooler. Healthier, cheaper, and a good deal more fun. Frozen raspberries become quite bitter so some sort of sweetener is usually needed.

Lunch:

Make a fun twist on the peanut butter and jelly classic. Instead of jelly use fresh raspberries. Use a whole wheat bread, real peanut butter (or almond butter), and mash the raspberries on top. Works well with a variety of berries and fruits.

Dinner:

Salad! For salads I like to get the spring salad bagged mixes. They contain so many different things, every bite is an adventure. Put the salad on plates, add raspberries and cucumber cut into raspberry sized chunks. The raspberry/cucumber combination is very appealing. Add your dressing. Remember simple is better with berries. So a little oil and red wine vinegar. Salt & Pepper. You're done! Raspberry, Cucumber heaven.

Desert:

Berry Cobbler is an especial favorite. It works quite well with blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, and combinations there of.

Berry Cobbler 2 cups Berries 1 cup Flour ½ cup butter pinch salt

Pre-heat over to 350 degrees.

Place berries in 8 inch oven dish

Mix together remaining ingredients (I like to use my hands for this, fun texture!) and crumble over berries.

Bake 40 to 45 minutes.

My mom made variations of this for desert. Thanks mom!

While already vegetarian this recipe is easily adapted to vegan and sugar free.

Snack or All of the above:

This is great for any meal or a snack! Take a banana and divide it along it's seam until you have three equal sections. If you've never done this before just try pushing into the tip, at a curve. The banana should fall into three sections. With the wedges pointed up, put the banana sections on a plate close together forming a plank. Spread on almond or peanut butter. Chop dried raspberries and sprinkle on top. Eat with a fork.

Wow! Vegan, Raw, Sugar-free, Dairy-free, and Delicious!

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Raspberries are in the genus Rubus. Making them a close relative of blackberries.

For more technical and botanical information on raspberries check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raspberry.