Welcome to part two of the four part series breaking down the latest additions to my cookbook collection, Lemons, Cucumbers, Honey, and Strawberries from Short Stack Editions, short form, ingredient-specific cookbooks.
On the last episode of Under the Parrot Umbrella: We made the angriest lemonade, a recipe based off of the “whole lemonade” recipe from Lemons by Alison Roman.
Next up…
Cucumbers! More like Cool-cumbers! Am I right??!
Answer: no. I’m not right.
I’ve loved cucumbers ever since I stole my dad’s from his house salads on the periodic Friday-night trips to Outback. I love them in salads. Pickled. Or even just chopped in a bowl with a nice salt, pepper, olive oil, and lemon juice.
But flipping through Cucumbers by Dawn Perry, I was taken aback when I saw her recipe for butter-baked cucumbers.
Some recipes illicit a “Oh, that sounds amazing.” Or a “I bet I could substitute some things to make it work for dinners.” And then there are recipes where “….I need to know what that tastes like” is the only reaction that makes sense.
And guys, I needed to know what cucumbers baked in butter tasted like. For science!*
Butter-Baked Cucumbers
Ingredients
- A pound of Persian cucumbers sliced lengthwise
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
- Salt and pepper
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
In a large baking dish, arrange the cucumbers, peel-side down.
Top with the butter and season with salt and pepper.
Transfer the dish to the oven to roast, basting the cucumbers with butter after ten minutes. Let bake for ten more minutes.
Review: One time I was making fried chicken, and since I had a pig pot full of oil, I figured I might as well try frying some other things around my kitchen. After all, fried things are delicious. Why wouldn’t a fried lemon slice be delicious? A fried potato chip?
I guess if we’re being specific, that potato chip would be twice-fried.
I would come to discover (almost immediately) not everything could or should be fried. I had similar feelings about these cucumbers. Believe it or not, not everything needs to be baked in butter. Just…like…most of the things.
But cucumbers can still be the hero!
Smash cucumbers and let those bad boys soak in a mix of soy sauce, rice vinegar, and sriracha. Eat by itself or pair with rice.
Chop some up and throw them in the some Greek yogurt, with lemon juice and dill. You’ll have yourself a solid tzatziki.
A personal recipe that I whip up all the time: chop some cucumbers, carrots, radishes, and celery, and then toss with a dressing made of olive oil, mustard, garlic, and a couple anchovy filets. No greenery, so the perfect salad to take to work for a wilt-free lunch.
But cucumbers, like humans and the fake owl on my patio who’s supposed to scare away critters but I’m *pretty* sure invites them for afternoon tea tomatos, should not try to be something they’re not.
I tried out another one of the recipes in the book, and had a little more luck.
Cucumber Salad with Olives and Whipped Feta
Ingredients:
- A pound of cucumbers
- 8 oz feta cheese
- Half cup of sour cream or Greek yogurt
- A cup of sliced kalamata olives (The recipe calls for oil-cured, but if you’re like me, your grocery store just carries kalamata in 293892 different brands)
- The zest and juice of one lemon
- Olive Oil
- Salt and pepper to taste
Chop the cucumbers in your favorite style. The recipe calls for thinly sliced, but I prefer peeled and diced. Toss with salt, and let sit.
In a food processor, combine the feta, olive oil, and sour cream or greek yogurt. Stir in the lemon zest and lemon juice once the mixture is smooth.
At this point the recipe says to spread the whipped feta on a plate and top with the cucumbers, then to top with the olives and any dressing left in the cucumber bowl.
I’m a neanderthal, so I just dumped everything in the same bowl and stirred.
And you know what? It probably tasted the same. (The realistic food-blogging coup has begun, ding-dongs! Get ready for pictures of me eating salads directly out of the mixing bowl and ingredients I forget to include in recipes till after the dish is done!)
This was a pretty solid recipe. The olives and the feta are a strong flavor combination though, so I actually enjoyed this more when I chopped up some chicken breasts and turned it into a “Greek chicken salad” of sorts.
All in all, I give the cookbook a B. I think it’s hard to turn cucumbers into a main attraction, but it definitely provides some new approaches to a vegetable I tend to just 1) chop, 2) pair with the nearest dressing.
Next up: Switchel! You don’t know what that is either? Cool!
Under The Parrot Umbrella 
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