Two Cucumber Recipes

   Between 10 and 15 years ago

I was an active member of the Compuserve Cooks and Garden forums. 

 You can  access the forums  now without being a member of Compuserve.  

 Click http://community.compuserve.com/ws-cooks  

It will  take you to the Cook's  forum that keeps 

  a library full of favorite recipes posted from the members. 

This first recipe was a family recipe from Diane L. 

 who was an active participant in both the Cooks and Garden forum. 

 She may still be there, but I haven't been a participant for several years now. 

 Anyway, this recipe from Diane

 and the following one are a couple of my favorite

cucumber recipes to use in the summertime. 

  I grow Persian Baby Cucumbers from Renee's Garden Seeds. 

So So good!  The cucumbers stay sweet. 

The plants are prolific and these recipes are good for using lots of cucumbers.

  

As written in Diane's words.

 Wilted Cucumber Salad

Serves 6

 3-4 large salad cucumbers weighing at least 2.5 pounds

kosher or regular salt

1/2 cup Best Foods/Hellman's Mayonnaise (not "Light")

2 Tablespoons cider vinegar

1/3 cup very thinly sliced sweet onion or green onions

1/3 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper

Directions

Peel and slice cucumbers into very thin rounds.

Layer the rounds in a large bowl, sprinkling each layer lightly with salt.

Cover the bowl and put into the fridge

 for at least 3 hours while the salt draws the juices out.

Remove from the fridge, pour off the juice.

 Wash hands well with soap and hot water.

Pick up about 3/4 cup of the cucumbers

 at a time and press them between your hands so

that even more juice runs out.

 Repeat until you have a bowl of limp cucumbers.

In a small bowl, stir the mayonnaise until smooth.

Add the cider vinegar and stir

again until smooth. Add the onions and the pepper.

(Don't add any more salt.)

Pour this dressing over the wilted cucumbers

 and mix well until each slice is coated.

You can serve this right away or wait a few days.

Total time in actual prep is about 20 minutes.

Source: As I child I remember the beloved old ladies in the family making this dish;

I think it's been a tradition for close to 100 years. It goes especially well with

chilled poached salmon or fried chicken. It lasts at least 5 day in the fridge unless

you have the vinegar-craving gene.

If you do, it makes a good breakfast and lasts

about 2 days.

Now, back to my words.

I made this last week.

I have made changes to the recipe though.

I use  fresh chives instead of onions. 

You can use the onions~ if you like them.

I love them cooked, but not raw.

 Plus I salt the cucumbers and the later use my salad spinner to

spin them dry. Easy peasy.

So, after I made this last week,   I lost the recipe!

I had the photos, and now no recipe to post.

Dang, it's somewhere I know it.  Lost in transit to the computer upstairs.

I spent time looking for it and got side tracked into sorting and throwing

out lots of recipes, torn from magazines and saved that I haven't used.

Why does that happen?  Sheesh.

Then I remembered that it's from the old Compuserve forum.

Bet it's still there ~~ yep, of course.

Diane had later updated her recipe and she now salts the

cucumbers and leaves them overnight in the refrigerator.

She too does the salad spinner trick.

OK, and now to the second recipe.

You need this:

plus onion  and fresh grated ginger that's not shown,

because my ginger is already peeled and stored in the freezer ready to grate.

Be careful when grating and pay attention to where your thumb is  ~ just saying.

Ginger ~ Spiced Cucumbers

from Better Homes and Garden magazine

sometime before May 2004 which is when I first tried the recipe.

1/4 cup seasoned rice vinegar

1/4 cup mirin (sweet cooking rice wine)

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger

1 large English cucumber (about 12 ounces),

peeled if desired and thinly sliced

1/4 cup thinly sliced red onion  ( I don't use them)

In a medium bowl combine rice vinegar, mirin, brown sugar, and ginger.

  Stir in cucumber and red onion slices.  

 Cover and chill for 30 minutes.  Serve with a slotted spoon.

Makes 4 to 6 side-dish servings.

Enjoy.