Cookaholics Bulletin Board

So, I have about three and a half linear feet of Armenian cucumbers. Seems like a shame to use them on anything boring like a salad; ideas?

(and believe it or don't, that's 2 cucumbers. These things are silly long)

Um, well, never mind.

Mary

The world's biggest Pimm's #1

Slice really thin along with thinly sliced red onion....put in a jar and cover with a mix of vinegar, water, pinch of sugar, salt & pepper (I don't have measurements....I generally start with half vinegar and water and season to taste). Great as an accompainment to almost anything. This keeps in the frig for weeks.

Cucumber buttermilk soup.

Stirrers for the tallest Bloody Mary known to man? Besides the length, do Armenian cucumbers taste better?

Lindsay,

They do, actually. Better than waxed American salad cucumbers, anyway.

None of y'alls suggestions quite grabbed me so I dug through the cookbooks (thanks EYB) and found a recipe for a Lebanese cucumber salad. Since it was mainly just cucumbers, it seemed perfect, and was quite tasty.

Also realized something when I made it; it's habitual for ME and Greek delis here in California to partially-peel cucumbers in stripes before adding them to salad. Apparently this is a way of imitating the cucumbers they have back home; these "Armenian" cucumbers were striped, dark and light green, which made them quite striking when cut into rounds. Like these:

Fuzzy
I went on a farm tour yesterday and they served Armenian cukes with the Bento Box they did for us. They said one of the aspects of these cukes is that they don't need to be peeled...they did not peel the ones they served us and they were great

Ilene,

That's right. Armenian, Persian, and Japanese cucumbers don't need to be peeled; their peels are thinner and less bitter.

Also, for the supermarket American cuke, not only has the skin been engineered to be extra-thick (for better transport), they're usually heavily waxed as well. So you have to peel salad cukes.