"cucumbers" news and stories

Armenian cucumbers. Photo: e.t., Flickr

• Thin-skinned Armenian and Asian cucumbers are a curvy new veggie treat. Here are tips on how to pick and use them.
• A surefire Parisian pie crust? Sign us up!
  
• In the less-traversed lands of Sonoma wine country lies Santi -- a country dining spot with "pristine" food.
• Eat Real's event in Jack London Square falls somewhere between a county fair and a highbrow gourmet food fest.
• San Francisco's Tadich Grill suffers a fire sparked by its wood-burning stove, but its owners hope to be back in operation soon.
• Graham Greene might have been a notable scribe, but the mixed drink named after him is "heinous."
• From vegan to gluten-free, the Plant Cafe Organic -- located on the Embarcadero -- seems to do it all.
• On making a roasted tomato soup with a young tyke.
• An American Cheese Society competition declares Wisconsin the cheese state, followed by California and Vermont.
• Writer Tara Duggan revels in leftovers to whip up tasty lunches for kids.
• A new -- and currently nameless -- new dining hotspot gears up to take over the old Quince digs.
• The culinary achievements of the Mayans that changed our foodie world: chocolate, vanilla, corn, chiles, tomatoes, black beans, avocado, sweet potato, squash and papaya.

Braised cucumbers. Photo: Brent Ridge, Beekman 1802.

Brent Ridge and Josh Kilmer-Purcell are the farmers and innovators behind Beekman 1802, a 200-year-old estate and farm in upstate New York. We'll be running recipes, gorgeous photos and tales from the farm as their crops come into season.

By Brent Ridge with Sandy Gluck

Like many people who love food (and watching cooking shows on TV), I plopped myself down in a cool theater during last week's heat wave to watch Meryl Streep expertly channel Julia Child.

What stuck with me after leaving the theater was not Streep's pitch-perfect accent, but the very brief mention of a recipe for braised cucumbers.

It is quite possible that my brain latched onto this because at the very moment I was having a conundrum with what to do with all the cucumbers we've been blessed with from the heirloom garden this year (after a disastrous beetle infestation in 2008).

Our heirloom cukes and an amazing recipe after the jump.

Homemade pickles. Photo: melsands, Flickr

August may mark the end of peak cucumber season, but that's no reason to be sad -- it's also the perfect time to stock, slice and pickle the green veggies, whether they're 2-inches or 2-feet long.

These pickles, made and taken by Flickr user melsands, were jarred with dill, coriander, allspice, garlic and fennel seeds. While they were probably intended to go on a sandwich, we'd be tempted to pluck each perfectly pickled cucumber chip straight from the jar until all that's left is just enough juice left to pickle another batch.

[Via Flickr]

Become a member of the Slashfood Flickr pool to get a shot at having your photos featured in Feast Your Eyes.

In this weekly series, home cook Bruce Watson works his way through a decades-old family cookbook, adapting the best recipes exclusively for Slashfood.

When I have access to fresh produce, cucumber season becomes one of my favorite times of the year. Although it runs from May to August, the wonderful green beauties won't reach their full flourish until later in the summer. Still, it's hard to resist the cool, summery flavor of the first cukes of the season. With that in mind, I decided to flip through my family cookbook in search of some great cucumber recipes.

My Aunt Renie's cucumber salad manages to halve the distance between sharp and smooth, sweet and sour, creamy and intense. In my adjusted version, I cut back on the onions, switched in Greek yogurt and tossed in some fresh dill.

The final version had the soothing coolness of a traditional cucumber salad, but also retained a nice vinegar tang that keeps me on my toes. This is great by itself, or as an accompaniment to barbecue or any other strongly seasoned dish.

Get the cucumber salad recipe after the jump!

For your lunchtime pleasure, I'm presenting a series of my favorite bento boxes. Bento are Japanese home-prepared meals served in special boxes, usually eaten for lunch at work or school. The boxes can range from austere lacquered trays to multi-tiered Hello Kitty confections of neon pink plastic. The meals themselves are anything from rice and leftovers to elaborate themed affairs of Pikachu-shaped dumplings with sesame seed eyes and carved radish trees. These days, bento enthusiasts from all over the world share their creations on Flickr.

Today's bento has the color and textural balance of a painting, while appearing to maintain its essential edibility. The creator, Wonder Zdora, notes that this is a bento made for hot weather - lots of juicy fruits and veggies and few heavy proteins. It includes rice noodles with shiso and umeboshi (pickled plum) and tahini dressing, radish flowers, cucumber salad with wakame seaweed, carrots, grapefruit and fresh medlar fruits.

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