Posts About Cucumbers You May Have Missed

I see that folks really want to know what to do with all the cucumbers they're growing in their gardens, or inheriting from their neighbors.

The other night, we ate JaJa Mein, and julienned cucumbers are the ideal topping for this spicy-salty dish, along with some chopped tomatoes. Here's the recipe:

Suzanne’s Jaja Mein

Based on lovelylanvin.com’s recipe

• ¼ cup chicken broth
• 1 Tbsp ground bean sauce (Koon Chun brand)
• 1 tsp miso
• 1 tsp agave syrup or mirin
• 1 Tbsp shoyu
• 1/2 tsp sesame oil
• 1 heaping Tbsp chili/garlic sauce 

Combine the above sauce ingredients in a small bowl. Saute the following in oil:

• ½ lb. ground beef or pork
• 1 Tbsp minced garlic
• 4 stalks (counting each bulb as one stalk) of green onion, chopped 

Add the sauce ingredients and simmer 3 to 4 minutes. Adjust taste.

For noodles: place an opened serving packet from a package Sun ramen noodles in bowl. Add 2-3 Tbsp water. Cover and microwave 45 seconds, then drain. Top with 2-3 Tbsp of ground beef mixture and garnish with julienned cucumber, grape or chopped tomatoes and cilantro. Note: recipe makes about 4 servings.

You could also make a cucumber salat as a side dish, or this quick cucumber pickle. This panzanella salad contains tomatoes as well as cucumbers.

Cooling cucumbers offer a crispy contrast to spicy or hot food. What is your favorite way to eat cucumbers?

What Else to Make with WOW Tomatoes

There were cucumbers, older bread, and WOW tomatoes from the Blaisdell Farmers' Market. Such a deal: these lovely red, orange and yellow - the latter two, low-acid! - about 8 or 10 of them for only $5. The lovely tomato lady said they were the "salsa" bag - riper, softer victims, but I already bookmarked them for tomato SOUP.

Yes, in the teeth of a Hawaiian summer, I make soup! Here is the recipe. I made a double batch, and we ate it hot the first time. Tonight, we ate the leftovers cold - just out of the refrigerator long enough to take off the first chill. We also ate deliciously sweet, juicy Tuscan melon - I got this from my *favorite* big box store - with prosciutto.

Last night, we ate WOW tomatoes and arugula on top of pizza that was NOT Inferno's. More about that some other time!

And I used the last of them Marc Matsumoto's Panzanella salad. Check out his personal blog, No Recipes, as well as the PBS blog. For this bread salad, there are 4 things I did differently. my leftover bread was a Kalamata olive loaf, not plain or white, and as I didn't have champagne vinegar, I used Japanese rice vinegar (milder). I used Kalamata olives instead of green ones AND capers. Finally, I have a huge bag of arugula (anyone out there have different arugual recipes?) so I served the salad on a bed of this.

How was it all? Two thumbs up from the DH! I thought the salad was a bit salty - probably because of the olives in the bread as well as the salad, plus the capers, and would cut back on the salt in the dressing. But it was all fresh, light and tasty, and the only heat in the kitchen was from toasting the croutons in a skillet. Here's a tip: keep the croutons in the pan to cool, that way they are not piled up and soggy, but stay crisp. I had leftover croutons enough for another salad.

And leftover melon and salad for lunch at work tomorrow!

What do you do to keep cool in the kitchen? Besides drinking a lot of rose!