Cucumbers

TRAVEL PLANS IN A PICKLE? TRY THESE RECIPES FROM NEAR AND FAR

Cool, crisp cucumbers evoke visions of afternoons spent lingering over alfresco lunches on a Greek isle, the French Riviera or an Italian coastline overlooking the Adriatic.

Even if we can only dream of faraway destinations this summer, re-creating the tastes of past travels—or of those we aspire to take in the future—can go a long way towards transporting us there. For a Greek-style salad, combine cucumbers with ripe tomatoes, feta, red onions, olives and oregano and sprinkle with olive oil and vinegar. Want to “travel” to Nice or Cannes? Use cucumbers in a Salade Nicoise along with lettuce, tomatoes, green beans, olives and anchovies, dressed with vinaigrette. Long for Italy? Make a simple but delicious Caprese salad, layering cucumbers with tomatoes, fresh mozzarella and basil, drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with sea salt. A balmy beach in Thailand more your style? Cucumbers and onions combined with a sweet and savory dressing spiked with a little chili and chopped peanuts will get you there. How about Madagascar or Rajasthan? Think Cucumber Raita, the combination of thinly sliced cucumbers and onions in yogurt served to tame the fiery taste of curries.

Cucumbers are not just key elements in a myriad of summer salads, they are also the star of the show in quintessential pickles, essential summer condiments for everything from hamburgers to potato salads. Sweet, sour, fermented, canned or refrigerator-style, pickles are required pantry items. For the home cook, this season, when cucumbers are abundant and inexpensive, is the time to make pickles.

Cucumbers come in many shapes, sizes and colors. The most familiar is the smooth, thin-skinned, dark green “market” or slicer type. Seedless cucumbers, like the English and Persian varieties, are also popular. Less familiar are two of my personal favorites: the round, pale yellow Lemon Cucumber and the pastel green, ridged Armenian cucumber, both slicer types offering good crunch, as well as flavor.

Pickling cucumbers, by contrast, are generally short and have thick, sometimes bumpy, skin. Often marketed as Kirby cucumbers, these are considered the most desirable for pickling because their sturdiness stands up well to the pickling process. When buying pickling cukes, choose fruit* that is on the small to medium size, which will have less seed development, and try to find as many as you need that are all the same size so they will process evenly.

Cucumbers are also easy to grow, and even one plant will provide a bounteous amount to keep you in salads throughout the summer. Two to three plants will keep you plenty busy making pickles.

* Yes, we typically think of cucumbers as vegetables because of their culinary uses but, because they grow from flowers and have seeds, botanically speaking they are fruits (as are tomatoes)!