Sunday, August 19, 2012

What's A Girl To Do With A Ton Of Fresh Cucs?

Since we're currently luxuriating in an abundance of lovely, crisp, crunchy, fresh cucs, I went looking for a new recipe in which to use them with dinner last night. And I found a real winner.

Have you ever come across that one special cook book in which you find a kajillion recipes that are so, so good? Well, this one is like that for me. Seems that reaching for this blue and white check book can't help but yield another great tasting recipe. It's put out by Taste of Home books and I took the following recipe for Sesame Cucumber Salad directly from it. Didn't make many any changes at all except that I didn't have green onions so substituted red onion rings instead.


SESAME CUCUMBER SALAD

8 cups thinly sliced cucumbers
1 tablespoon salt
2 green onions, sliced
1 garlic clove, minced
2 to 3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons vinegar
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon sesame seeds, toasted
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Place cucumbers in a colander. Set the colander on a plate; sprinkle cucumbers with salt and toss. Let stand for 30 minutes. Rinse and drain well. In a bowl, combine the onions, garlic, soy sauce, vinegar, oil, sesame seeds and cayenne. Add cucumbers and toss to coat. Cover and refrigerate until serving. Yield: 8-10 servings.

I did toss and stir the cuc slices in the marinade a couple/few times in the four hours I had it in the refrigerator before dinner.

What to do with more cucs today? Today's going to be an easy day on the cook. Leftovers from last night and lots of fresh veggies from the garden (including cucs, of course) with a good dip.

Happy Sunday to you all!

20 comments:

Sue said...

THose Taste of Home cookbooks are the best, aren't they? I've got their annual books for a few years....just love them.
As for cukes, I've had my share already. And the neighbors have quit answering the phone-LOL! So, Shhhhhhhh, don't tell anyone but I've been composting quite a few.

Sparkless said...

Why not use some of the cukes for beauty treatments? Or slice some up and make cucumber water to drink.
If you have large ones with lots of seeds, hollow them out and put dip in them or a pasta salad.

Jane @ Hard Work Homestead said...

Oh thank you for this because I have never in my life had this many cucumbers. Considering all my plants failure to germinate and it took two to three plantings to get them to live, I thought for sure I would never see any develop. Well I have pickled thousands, ate a 100,00 and gave away like a million, and if I ever see another it will be too soon. But I think I will try just a few more and try out this recipe.

Lisa said...

Oh my goodness, this sounds delicious. Ours are about done and I'm somewhere between Sue and Jane with feed the chickens cukes thrown in. But next year......!

Amy Dingmann said...

Yum! Sounds fabulous...especially to another MN gal who has an over abundance of cukes! Isn't it great when you find one of those cookbooks you KNOW will give you a great recipe everytime? Hold on to that one, my dear!!

Mama Pea said...

Sue - Hey, I don't feel bad about composting "extra" veggies. It all goes back into the garden soil. I throw a good bunch into the poultry pen but they are all so full of greens at this point that they're not that interested! (We need a couple of pigs.)

Mama Pea said...

Sparkless - Hey! You sayin' I need beauty treatments?? (Oh, indeed I do!) You have good ideas of how to use more up. Shall do!

Mama Pea said...

Jane - I think I mentioned previously somewhere that the slicing cucs remind me of zucchinis this year. PROLIFIC! (We'll never figure it out, will we?)

Mama Pea said...

Lisa - Each year I find great sounding recipes for garden veggies on the blogs and sometimes that vegetable isn't presently available to use so I always save them for . . . the gardeners mantra . . . NEXT YEAR!

Mama Pea said...

Mama Tea - Yep, funny when that happens, isn't it? On the flip side, I've gotta admit I've bought cook books in which I haven't found one single recipe we like. Ya just never know!

judy said...

I found a new cucumber salad too with green peppers and garbanzo beams but I'll try your too,sounds good,if I can remember to buy sesame seeds,not a staple at our place

Jenyfer Matthews said...

My BIL is visiting and he made a simple cucumber salad for dinner using cukes from a generous neighbor - it was a huge hit. Just slice up the cucumber (into disks) and dress generously with rice wine vinegar and a spoon of sugar. Pretty sweet but it was a nice accompaniment to the shish kebobs we had :)

Susan said...

That sounds perfect - I, too, have a wagon load of cukes in the fridge. Just when I think they've died down, I stumble (literally) upon a humongous one! I will try this tonight. And I will try NOT to buy this cookbook - as I am trying to pare down my collection. Maybe.

Patty said...

That looks great! Can't wait to try it. Our cucumbers are just starting, so we're still really enjoying those we're getting.

Mama Pea said...

judy - The toasted sesame seeds really add a lot to the flavor so wait til you get them to try it, 'kay?

Mama Pea said...

Jen - I had someone else suggest the vinegar and sugar dressing for them. I've got rice wine vinegar so I think I'll try this. Thanks!

Mama Pea said...

Susan - They don't keep super-well so maybe only make a quarter of the recipe if it's just for yourself. I only made half the recipe and it was more than ample for us three eager eaters.

Mama Pea said...

Patty - I just went out to check on mine . . . and brought back in NINE of them. I couldn't help but think what we wouldn't give for a fresh one mid-winter! (I refuse to buy them at the store then because they're so expensive and taste like they are about six months old!)

Erin said...

that recipe sounds great! I have a Filipino friend here that makes a simple salad as well that her grandma always made, and I LOVE it even though I'm not usually a fan of large amounts of cukes. She just slices, tosses with rice vinegar and about a tsp of sugar and lets sit in the fridge for 1-5 hours and tossed with sesame seeds right before serving, delish!

Mama Pea said...

Erin - I think I'd like your recipe. Tossing the sesame seeds in before serving would be very tasty!