CUCUMBERS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 March 1939, Page 8

CUCUMBERS

SOME WHOLESOME DISHES. NUMEROUS WAYS OF SERVING. We are rather apt to believe that, by stripping a cucumber of his coat and slicing him before bathing him in vinegar, we are doing our utmost to enjoy him. In that we are quite wrong. Cucumbers are among the most wholesome vegetables for salads and dieticians assert that they are not indigestible if eaten with their skins and cut thickly enough to secure proper mastication. There are. numerous ways of serving the cucumber, many of them hot and all of them worth while. Cucumber juice has a delicious flavour and it is easily extracted by grating and straining through a clean muslin bag. A well-beaten cream cheese with cucumber juice added to it makes a good centre for a mixed salad. Steamed Cucumber. Wash a large cucumber and cut in slices about 2 inches thick crosswise. Steam .till tender. Serve the pieces standing upright with a good white sauce poured over them and garnished with chopped parsley. Fried Cucumber.

Wash the cucumber and cut in slices about an inch thick. Steam or boil them till tender (abput r -15 minutes). Dry the slices and fry in butter till they are just browned. Garnish with chopped parsley.

Cucumbers with Cream Sauce. Cut medium-sized cucumbers in halves length-wise. Fry in butter for five minutes, turning them carefully. Mix a tablespoon of flour with a little milk to a smooth paste, put in a pan and add a tablespoon of butter and half a cup of milk. Stir well till it boils and add a tablespoonful of cream. Put in the halved cucumbers and cook fill they are tender. Serve very hot. Cucumber Pie.

Slice the required number of cucumbers finely. Butter a pie dish and sprinkle it with grated Parmesan cheese. Put a layer of cucumber slices about an inch thick and then a layer of grated cheese, and so on till the dish is nearly full. Over the last layer spread some tomato puree. Cover with grated cheese, breadcrumbs, and a few pats of butter. Bake for an hour in a moderate oven. Cucumber Fritters.

Cucumber fritters are absolutely delicious. Make them exactly like apple fritters, but, of course, with salt and pepper instead of sugar. Pickled Cucumbers.

Do not peel the cucumbers, but slice them-down the centre, scrape out the pips and cut into pieces 2 inches long. Lay in an earthenware vessel, cover with salt, leave-for 24 hours, then pour off the water. Add 1 teacupful brown sugar to every quart of vinegar, cloves, cinnamon, bay leaves, a little powdered mustard, and some small onions and boil up together before pouring over the cucumbers. Leave until cold, then pour off the vinegar, boil up again and pour over. Repeat this, boiling up the vinegar three times in all. Tie the jars clown and the contents are ready for use in about two months’ time.

Cucumber Jelly. This is a very pleasant variant of the usual cold cucumber garnish with salmon and is also delicious with cold chicken or as a substitute for salad. Simmer the cut-up cucumber in a, very little water until tender. Take out' the seeds if they are old and hard, but in young cucumbers this is not necessary, as they are not bitter. Rub the whole through a hair-sieve while it is still warm.

Flavour it with pepper and salt and any further tang you may fancy, such as powdered mint or a little mace. To a pint of pulp melt an ounce of powdered gelatine in an eggcupful of hot water. Stir this well into the cucumber. A drop or two of green colouring improves the appearance. Set the jelly in cups and turn them out round a dish of cold fish or cold meat, and you have a tempting garnish.