Cool as a Cucumber

It’s true, you know. Cucumbers really are cool. Up to 20 degrees cooler than the surrounding air, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Though I’m not sure why they care…

Anyway, it’s hot and cucumbers are cool and plentiful so it seems like a good time to talk about cool ways to enjoy them. Cool and easy ways to enjoy them. Starting with CUCUMBER WATER. With cucumber, lemon, mint and fresh ginger (or any combination of these), it’s a refreshing way to get in the extra water you need on these hot summer days. And ladies, it helps beat the summertime bloat,too!

Gazpacho has been described as a salad that you drink and frequently has tomatoes, onion, and other vegetables in addition to cucumbers. CHILLED CUCUMBER SOUP WITH MINT & YOGURT is less complicated than a lot of recipes. In fact, the blog where I found the recipe says you can make it in less than three minutes! While I don’t know about that, it is quick and easy. Just be sure to include at least an hour for the soup to chill. I’ve seen recipes that say to serve it in a bowl sitting inside a bowl of ice to be sure that it is ice cold when eaten. You don’t need to go that far. Just chill it well and serve it as soon as it comes out of the fridge.

Pickle making is usually a long, involved process. Trust Rachael Ray to come up with QUICK PICKLES that can be made in 15 minutes! They’re dills, with just a hint of sweetness.

And finally, CUCUMBER ICE POPS, with lime and chili. I’m giving you the original recipe, but the site where I found the recipe suggests cutting back either on the amount of chili or the type. I agree.

Stay cool!

Mary Anne

Don't Throw That Away!

“Waste not, want not.” It’s an old fashioned idea, isn’t it? It really doesn’t have a place in today’s throw-away society. Or does it? Mother Hubbard sure thinks it does! Minimizing waste is even part of the Hub’s Vision Statement.

Minimizing waste shows up in practice, too. The Hub composts, and even collects compostables from a couple of local restaurants. They hold classes in composting. (Have you seen Jessica Sobocinski’s post about her experiences with composting? It’s great.) I’ve talked repeatedly about saving bones to make BONE BROTH and saving chicken skin to make CHICKEN CHIPS OR GRIBENES and I’ve given directions for ROASTED PUMPKIN SEEDS, too. Domestic Diva Barbara has demonstrated making yogurt with slightly old milk and kim-chi with past-their-prime veggies. The Tool Share program lends out driers and canners so you can dry and can extra fruits and veggies and has classes on food preservation. There was even a class last month on wild edibles (a.k.a. weeds).

In the summer, with all the fresh produce that's available, there tends to be even more vegetable waste than the rest of the year. It's a great time for adding to your compost pile. It's also a great time for finding alternative uses for parts of the fruits and vegetables that you usually toss. So, in the spirit of self-sufficiency, economy and sustainability, here are some recipes for using things that might otherwise be tossed out.

Did you know that there’s only about three-quarters of a cup of corn kernels on an ear of corn? The rest is the husk, the silk (not much of that) and, of course, the cob. I don’t have recipes for the husks (though I think they’re used in tamales) or the silk, but I do have a recipe for the cobs. CORN COB JELLY. I’ve never made it myself, but it’s supposed to taste like honey. Wildflower honey, to be exact, according to some.

There’s a lot of waste with a watermelon, too, what with the thick rind and all. The solution? WATERMELON PICKLES. They’re a lot of work, though, if you make it according to the traditional recipe, or at least the recipe I got in the 70s from Toni, an old Iowa farm girl.They're also very sweet - some recipes call them Candied Watermelon Rind.  Or you could make EASY PICKLED WATERMELON RIND, which are lots easier and much less sweet, though they only keep about 10 days in the fridge. And if you’ve got an old-fashioned watermelon with lots of black seeds, you can make ROASTED WATERMELON SEEDS, which are a popular snack in the Middle East. You can do the same thing with seeds from cantaloupe, honeydew and other melons, too. For that matter, you should be able to make pickles from other kinds of melons, too, though most rinds aren’t as thick as watermelon rind.

Somewhat similar to the Watermelon Pickles are RED HOT CUCUMBERS, that Toni, who would be in her 90s today, used to make. They use the huge overgrown cucumbers that get overlooked in the garden and suddenly appear way bigger than you want to use in a salad. They're crunchy and sweet and cinnamony and spicy and pretty. A lot like the spiced apple rings that used to be used as garnish, especially at Christmas. I can't find Toni's recipe, but I know it took several days. The recipe I'm giving here is one I found online and only takes two days. You can use overgrown zucchini instead of the cucumbers if that's what you happen to have. Just be sure, with either the cucumbers or the zucchini, that they'll fit in your canning jar if you want to keep them in rings.

Looking over this, I see an awful lot of sugar added to the throw away items, so, with the exception of the watermelon seeds, they're not exactly cheap. They are cheaper, though, than if you had to go out and buy the cucumbers or apples or whatever to make pickles out of. And they're something different. And they're easy (fiddly, perhaps, but easy) and good. So why not give them a try?

Quick Pickles

(very closely based on http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/quick-pickles-recipe.html)

1/2 c white vinegar

1 T sugar

1 t mustard seed

1 t salt

1 smashed but whole clove garlic

1 t dried dill

1 bay leaf

4 kirby* cucumbers, cut into 1” slices on an angle (a bit less than a pound)

Heat small saucepan over medium high heat. Add vinegar, sugar, mustard seed, salt and garlic to the pan and cook until it begins to simmer and sugar dissolves. Toss the dill, bay leaf and sliced cucumbers together in a heat-proof bowl. Pour the simmering liquid over the cucumbers and stir to evenly coat. Allow to cool to room temperature or chill before serving. The pickles aren't preserved and won't keep long.

*Kirby or pickling cucumbers are best, but you can use "regular" or slicing cucumbers instead. Try to find slender ones. One difference is that the seeds in slicing cucumbers tend to be bigger.

Watermelon Pickles

(an old family recipe)

4 to 5 qts watermelon rind

Boiling water

1 T salt

1 qt cider vinegar

6-1/2 qts sugar (26 cups)

28 whole cloves

14 cinnamon sticks

Choose firm fresh melon with thick white rind. Peel and trim away all but faintest pink. Cut as desired – cubes, hearts, shamrocks, etc. (There are old-fashioned cutters designed for this sort of thing. Cookie cutters won't do because they're not deep enough.) The pieces should be about 1". Cover rind with boiling water; add salt. Bring to boil and cook 10 minutes, or until cubes can be pierced easily with a fork. Drain well. Squeeze out extra liquid. Pack in crock or enameled kettle.

Bring vinegar and 6 cups sugar to a boil; pour over rind. Let stand overnight. Each day, drain off syrup and bring the syrup just to a boil, adding more sugar as follows: first day 4 cups, second through fourth days 2 cups each day and fifth to 14^th day days 1 cup per day. Skim if needed; pour back over pickles. (It won’t hurt if you skip an occasional day.)

On 14^th day, pack the pickles loosely in hot sterilized pint jars. To each jar, add 2 cloves and 1 stick cinnamon. Cover with syrup, leaving 1/2" headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace if needed. Wipe rims of jars with a dampened clean paper towel and put on two piece metal canning lids. Process in a boiling water canner for 10 minutes. Makes 11 to 14 pints.

A Smaller Version - only about 3 pints

4 to 5 cups watermelon rind

boiling water

3/4 t salt 

1 c cider vinegar

6-1/2 cups sugar

8 whole cloves

4 sticks cinnamon

Choose firm fresh melon with thick white rind. Peel and trim away all but faintest pink. Cut as desired – cubes, hearts, shamrocks, etc. (There are old-fashioned cutters designed for this sort of thing. Cookie cutters won't do because they're not deep enough.) Cover rind with boiling water; add salt. Bring to boil and cook 10 minutes, or until cubes can be pierced easily with a fork. Drain well. Squeeze out extra liquid. Pack in crock or enameled kettle.

Bring vinegar and 1-1/2 cups sugar to a boil; pour over rind. Let stand overnight. Each day, drain off syrup and bring the syrup just to a boil, adding more sugar as follows: first day 1 cup, second through fourth days 1/2 cup each day and fifth to 14^th day days 1/4 cup per day. Skim if needed; pour back over pickles. (It won’t hurt if you skip an occasional day.)

On 14^th day, pack the pickles in hot sterilized pint jars. To each jar, add 2 cloves and 1 stick cinnamon.  Cover with syrup, leaving 1/2" headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace if needed. Wipe rims of jars with a dampened clean paper towel and put on two piece metal canning lids. Process in a boiling water canner for 10 minutes. Makes 3 to 4 pints.

Easy Pickled Watermelon Rind

(based on a recipe from kitchenriff.com)

1 qt watermelon rind, cut into pieces about 1” square

1 c vinegar (rice wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar, or plain white vinegar)

1/2 c water

1 c sugar

2-1/2 t table salt

1 star anise

2” piece of ginger, peeled and roughly chopped (optional) OR 1/2 t powdered cinnamon

Cut or scoop out the flesh from about half of a seedless watermelon. You can leave about 1/2 inch of red flesh on the rind or cut it off closer. Either way works, but be sure to leave at least a little bit of pink for the color. Cut the rind into 1” strips and then peel each strip, using either a potato peeler or a knife. You want to get rid of all the green skin. Cut the peeled strips into 1” pieces and measure. You should have between four and five cups.

Combine the vinegar, sugar, salt, star and anise and optional ginger or cinnamon in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil and stir to dissolve the sugar and salt. Once it boils, add the watermelon rind, return to a boil, and simmer for 1 minute. Remove pan from heat and cool for 1 hour.

Transfer watermelon rind to a 1 quart plastic container or canning jar. Don’t leave it in metal; the acid from the vinegar can ruin the metal and/or react with the vinegar to taste bad. Cover with the syrup. Refrigerate overnight and serve chilled.

These pickles must be refrigerated and won’t last more than a week to ten days in the fridge. Do not keep them longer than this.

Red Hot Cucumbers

(closely based on http://allrecipes.com/recipe/christmas-red-pickles/)

7 lbs large cucumbers

1 c pickling line (calcium hydroxide) – not pickling salt

2 t red food coloring

1 t powdered alum

1 c distilled white vinegar

7 c white sugar

2 c distilled white vinegar

2 c water

1 c cinnamon red hot candies (cinnamon imperials)

4 cinnamon sticks

Peel cucumbers. Cut in half cross-wise. Using a knife or spoon, scrape out the seeds, then cut into ¼” slices. They should be in rings. Make sure they’ll fit in your canning jars. If they’re too big, you can cut them into half circles, but the full circles look better. Place the cucumbers in a glass or ceramic crock or big bowl. (Don’t use metal because the vinegar will pit it and the reaction with the metal may make the cucumbers bitter.) Dissolve the pickling lime in about a quart of room temperature water and pour it over the cucumbers. Add enough additional water so that the cucumbers are covered by about 1/2”. Let stand at room temperature for 24 hours.

Drain the cucumbers and rinse well with cold water. Place them into a large stockpot (preferably enameled rather than exposed metal) and cover with cold water. Leave them alone for 3 hours then drain and rinse them again.

Return the cucumbers to the pot and add the red food coloring, the alum, 1 cup of vinegar, and enough water to cover by 1/2” inch. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 2 hours. Drain them, and let them cool just a bit before returning them to the original glass or ceramic crock.

Stir together the sugar, 2 cups vinegar, red hot candies, and cinnamon sticks over medium heat until the sugar and the candies dissolve. Pour over the still warm cucumbers, cover, and leave them overnight.

Pack pickles into pint jars, seal, and process in a hot water bath for 15 to 20 minutes. Refrigerate any jars that don’t seal.