cucumber

Pickles

by Lisa on August 15, 2012

I love pickles. So does Caroline. The process of making pickles always seemed pretty intimidating. There was fermenting and barrels and ratios of things….it was just too much. I knew there had to be an easier way. Thanks to Ashley, there is!

I followed Ashley’s Simply Pickled recipe, only modifying by not measuring each spice exactly, just eyeballing it.

12oz pickling cucumbers, sliced
8 sprigs fresh dill
1T coriander seeds
1/2T mustard seed
1T whole black peppercorns
4 garlic cloves, halved
1T kosher salt
3/4c distilled white vinegar
water to cover

Place a couple of sprigs of dill in the bottom of a 1 quart glass jar.

Combine the salt and vinegar in a bowl.

Add the cucumbers to the jar and place some sprigs of dill in between the layers of cucumbers.

Add all of the spices and garlic on top of the cucumbers, pour in the vinegar and salt mixture than add water to cover.

Refrigerate for 4 to 6 hours before serving.

As long as cucumbers are readily available, I will make my own pickles and avoid buying them in the store. Store bought pickles pale in comparison to this quick and easy homemade recipe—the fresh flavors cannot be beat.

Throwing these together took five minutes and then after about four hours in the refrigerator, they were ready to go!

Enjoy!

Recipe from Edible Perspective.

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Simply Summer {Cucumber Soup with Shrimp}

by Lisa on September 12, 2011

Jeromy and I were really lucky to have a lot of help as soon as Caroline was born. My parents spent two weeks with us and then Jeromy’s mom spent a week. I hardly had to think about anything more than Caroline’s feeding and sleeping schedule, meals just materialized in front of me. It was wonderful. But after 3 weeks, I was ready to get back into the swing of things. I wanted to cook a meal. But here’s the thing—with a newborn, you don’t necessarily have time to cook a whole meal—you have to move quickly.

One day while Caroline was napping on me I was watching the Barefoot Contessa and she made this cold cucumber soup. She basically just threw a bunch of stuff in a food processor. I could totally handle that.

Ingredients

1 container Greek yogurt {I used Trader Joe’s 0% fat}
2 English cucumbers, seeded and chopped
3/4 cup half and half
1/4 of a red onion, chopped
5 whole scallions, sliced
2-3 lemons, juiced
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1/2 tablespoon black pepper
large handful cilantro, minced
16 shrimp, cooked and halved {I used frozen—a great shortcut}

Method

Prepare all of the ingredients.

Add everything except the cilantro, shrimp and lemon juice to a food processor. A blender can be used too, just work in batches.

Process until pureed. Transfer to a separate container and fold in the cilantro. Cover and chill for at least 2 hours.

Prepare the shrimp about 10 minutes before you want to eat. When ready to serve, stir in the lemon juice.

I put a small pile of the shrimp on the bottom of the bowl, ladled the soup over it and then garnished with 4 shrimp halves.

This soup is creamy, refreshing and just delicious. It was filling enough to be dinner but also light enough that we were not weighed down on a hot summer night.

To make this dish vegetarian friendly, just omit the shrimp. Next time I think I would use shallots instead of red onion for a milder flavor.

As much as I love all of the fresh produce at the farmer’s market throughout the summer, we are entering my favorite time of the year. I can’t wait to get into the kitchen and make some fall favorites…but it’ll be hard tearing myself away from this face.

Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from The Barefoot Contessa

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Simply Summer {Cucumber Mint Salad}

by Lisa on June 21, 2011

This salad came together kind of by accident. Rockland’s BBQ in DC makes a cucumber salad that I absolutely love and had at our friend’s Derby party recently. Unfortunately, I couldn’t really remember what was in the salad, so I made it up I picked up some cucumbers at the farmer’s market and used a couple in this recipe and ate another raw with salt for a snack today. {Does that sound weird? It’s not a pregnancy craving, I promise, I eat raw veggies with a little bit of salt normally!}

We have an overabundance of herbs growing in our pots right now. It’s hard to keep up with the plants and use all of the herbs! If you can believe it, we don’t have any basil or chives growing right now, but we have pretty much everything else.

Mint, 2 types of sage and tarragon above.

Oregano, 2 types of thyme, rosemary and more sage.

And we can’t forget about our lemon trees.

For this recipe, I utilized the mint.

Mint grows like a weed and it will take over your entire yard if it is planted in the ground, which is why we keep ours in a pot. Ordinarily I would think of adding mint to mojitos or bourbon and ginger, but that will just have to wait until next year. For now, we’ve been putting mint in sorbet and salads. This salad, to be specific.

I did not take any pictures in progress—I didn’t realize how good this salad would be until I made it. My measurements are not exact, just combine ingredients to suit your taste.

Ingredients

2-3 Persian cucumbers, or 1 large English cucumber, peeled and sliced into half moons {leave the seeds or remove them, up to preference}.
1/4 of a red onion, sliced thin and cut in half
2 large sprigs of mint, leaves removed and finely chopped
1.5-2 tablespoons olive oil
1.5-2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
dash of sugar
salt and pepper, to taste

Method

Prepare the cucumber, red onion and mint and combine in a bowl.

Sprinkle the olive oil, white wine vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper over the mixture. Toss to combine. Allow to sit for 5 minutes before serving.

Not using a lot of olive oil keeps this dish light and fresh. I’ve served it twice this past week—as a side dish to dinner and as a salad for lunch.