Cucumber

Our next-door neighbour gave us some lovely cucumbers out of her garden. They’re what I think of as “normal” cukes, not the English kind that I mostly see in the grocery store; these are only about 8″ long and the same as the ones we used to grow when I was a kid.

When I buy an English cucumber, I usually use a peeler to take about half the peel off in long strips; it looks attractive and takes away some of the bitterness. These fresh cucumbers are so light and crisp there’s no need to peel them at all. Last night Mike cut one in half, then in wedges lengthwise, and they disappeared off the kitchen counter while dinner was cooking. I like to put a little salt and pepper on mine. They go particularly well with hamburgers, in my mind.

My favourite things to do with cucumbers include tzatziki, but you have to eat an awful lot of it to get a serving of vegetable; you’d max out your dairy for the day before you got a full serving of cucumber! When I was a child I would make cucumber sandwiches with mayonnaise and Wonder bread; a good example of making something healthy, rather less so.

If you’re having company, I’ve made a recipe from the LCBO a couple of times that doesn’t appear to be on their site now. Here it is:

Shrimp and Cucumber Bites
1 cucumber, sliced in rounds
1/4 cup mayonnaise (light is fine)
2 tsp wasabi paste (or more or less, depending on how strong yours is and how much you like it)
4 oz medium-sized cooked shrimp, peeled and tails off
2 or 3 red radishes

If you wish, peel strips off the side of the cucumber, or run a fork down it lengthwise to make a pattern. Cut the cucumber into fat rounds (I invariably count how many shrimp I have, and cut the into that many slices; it’s a good excuse to eat a shrimp or two to get a nice divisible number). If the cucumber seems very wet, or you have to let it sit a while before continuing, wipe the slices with a paper tower when you’re ready to finish.

Mix the mayonnaise and wasabi together, and dollop about a teaspoonful on each slice of cucumber. Put a shrimp on top of that and press it down a bit to stay put. Chop the radishes into tiny dice and sprinkle them on top; you can either use your teaspoon again and dribble a bit on each shrimp, or if you’re getting impatient you can put all the cucumber/shrimp bites on a plate and throw the radish over everything.

If you serve this to four people, each of you is getting at least one serving of vegetable. With light mayonnaise it’s only 86 calories per serving.

I particularly like this recipe because it’s cleverly substituting cucumber for crackers. I’m sure the idea could be extended to other appetizers, particularly any involving seafood or cream cheese, which seem to go well with cucumber.