Tzatzkiki

We ate this a lot in the summer, when cucumbers arrived in our veg bag often, and the walk to the grocery shop past the greek restaurant often reminded me to buy skyr or greek yoghurt. That's the only trick - to use thick yoghurt so it doesn't get too runny from cucumber juice.

1/2 cucumber, grated
1/2 clove garlic, crushed to a paste
approx. 1 1/2 cups greek yoghurt or skyr
squeeze of lemon juice (about 1 tsp)
pinch of salt

Coarsely grate the cucumber into a bowl, then squeeze out / drain off some of the liquid. Add garlic, yoghurt/skyr, lemon juice and salt. Mix up and taste for flavour balance and seasoning.


Great with some bread and a greek salad.

Diced cucumber, tomato and feta salad with chickpeas

Cucumbers are so deliciously crunchy and crisp and delicately tasty and juicy. Perfect antidote to accidentally drinking too much coffee... again. Why not cut them into chickpea-sized pieces along with some cucumbers and a little bit of feta... add parsley and tasty bits and pieces, and crunch on it along with a bit of bread... whenever I cook chickpeas they disappear so fast!

1/2 cucumber, diced
6 ish small-medium tomatoes, diced
1 in piece of feta, diced
cupful of cooked chickpeas
2 tbsp chopped parsley
1 tbsp chopped capers
1 tbsp chopped sundried tomatoes
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
salt+pepper

Mix everything together, dress with olive oil, balsamic, salt+pepper. Done.


Nothing but simple food, and especially salads at the moment. S has been bringing lunch to work as well since we moved here, so it's kind of a fun challenge thinking of what will feed my appetite plus his.

Toasting giant couscous / revisiting reliable recipes

I have been making a lot of things over again: as vegetable friends I haven't seen since last year turn up in the CSA I have been tending to return to things I made before and liked. Improvements and refinements instead of novelties. Also lots of salad. Familiarity feels good.

Beetroot (OK these haven't been absent since last year, but we have been getting a lot of them recently):
This is my favourite way of cooking beets. Becomes an instant salad if you peel+mash the roasted garlic, mix it through with some extra balsamic, let cool and keep in the fridge.

Carrot greens: I have never really prepped them any way other than this paste, because it's so so good.

Basil: pistachio pesto - need I say more?

Cucumbers+tomatoes: overnight couscous (and quicker variant)

Aubergines: caponata - excellent, especially with toasted couscous (see below); baba; miso aubergine

Courgettes, fennel, aubergines, peppers: roasted veg with harissa dressing and couscous / wheatberries (or, lately, orzo)

Peppers: muhammara

Yes, and, that giant couscous I mentioned - I have always found it a bit bland, and obviously it lacks the ready-in-ten-minutes-with-no-pans-involved charm of normal couscous. So this time I tried toasting it with a little olive oil in the pan for a few minutes, until lightly browned, before adding the water and cooking as usual (finishing with salt, pepper, olive oil and white wine). Sooooo much tastier! Definitely recommended if you have a few extra minutes!

Simple pickled cucumber slices

I have enjoyed all the pickled cucumbers I've made (bread and butter; faux-Grillos) a huge amount - both those recipes are keepers.

But I saw this recipe, and was feeling lazy - it's one of those things about these hot, thick summer days - they bring a vegetal bounty, but no energy and no inclination to either turn the gas on or spend any time cooking. So the quicker you can throw together a refreshing pickly snack you can eat right out of the fridge, the better.

So, even simpler than the other pickles - no heating, no garlic, no spices.

1 medium-large cucumber, washed, ends removed, thinly sliced
~1 tbsp chopped dill
1 cup white vinegar
~1 tbsp coarse salt

Pack the cucumber slices in a large, clean jar. Add the dill and salt and then pour in the vinegar. Put the lid on and shake well to distribute everything. After about 8 hours check the liquid level and top up with more vinegar/water mixture if the cucumber slices are not covered in liquid.

Fridge pickled cucumbers (faux-Grillo's Hot)

S is a big fan of our #1 local pickle-purveyor - Grillo's. He even has the t-shirt. I have been hatching a plan to try and recreate them for him. I picked some vine leaves from the garden I help at (which has a beautiful crop of grapes developing over the entrance archway). Beyond that, I knew I'd need cucumbers, dill, jalapeno and/or habanero chillis, garlic, vinegar and salt. We hung out in our friend D's yard last night, sitting around a fire and talking about skunks and mushrooms. He works at a farm nearby, so at this time of year he always has masses of veg going spare at his place. We left with cucumbers (about 5 little ones) and jalapenos. We already had some lovely-looking garlic left from double-CSA week, and I picked up some dill at the Russian store at the end of our road this afternoon. Now all I need is Grillo's top-secret recipe... This is my best guess.

2 fresh vine leaves, washed (or a couple of pinches of tea leaves)
5 small cucumbers, washed, top-and-tailed and cut lengthwise into spears
3 medium-small jalapenos, deseeded and cut in half lengthwise
2 huge cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced chunkily lengthwise
handful of picked dill fronds, washed
1 1/2 cups distilled white vinegar (or cider vinegar)*
2 1/2 cups water*
2 tbsp fine sea (or desert, or pickling) salt
mustard seed (optional)

Put the vine leaves in the bottoms of two large, clean jars. Pack the cucumbers in on top, then add in the dill, garlic and jalapenos, distributing them evenly between the two jars. I decided to try adding mustard seed to one jar (deviating from the recipe I'm trying to recreate, but potentially good). Put the vinegar, water and salt in a pan and heat until just boiling. Pour over the cucumbers, filling right up to the top. Put the lids on and let cool to room temperature before storing in the fridge. Try and wait at least 48 hours before eating.

*A second round, tweaked proportions - changed to the above from 2 cups of vinegar and 2 cups of water.

Edit: We managed to wait almost 48 hours! I made them on Sunday afternoon and we tested the first jar on Tuesday lunchtime. They look and taste like the real deal. S says they are a little more vinegary than Grillo's, which may be just because they could do with pickling for longer (will hang onto the second jar til the end of the week at least), or if that doesn't work I might try using a lower proportion of vinegar in the brine if we come by more cukes. Not bad for a first effort though!

Edit II: After a week the first batch still tasted a little vinegary to S, so I tweaked the proportions of vinegar as above (and ended up subbing some cider vinegar). I gave away several jars from this second batch, and they seem to be universally loved. High praise from D, who not only grew the cukes but is also a bit of a pickle expert. Plus, S reckons he cannot tell the difference between these and Grillo's. Think I've cracked it.

Variations:
Tea leaves instead of vine leaves - it's the tannins that keep things crisp; tea works well and adds an interesting flavour (that can be tweaked eg by using Earl Grey)
Chilli flakes instead of fresh chilli.
Adding fresh nasturtium seeds or dried mustard seeds to the mix.

Tzatziki

This was something I had been meaning to try when I got around to stocking up on coconut milk for kefir. But, in the end, S beat me to it. This was his recipe, and I think it tasted great. The coconut kefir is thinner than the thickened yoghurt usually used for tzatziki, so it is not thick but tastes delicious.

1-2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 cucumber, peeled and grated
mint and chives, chopped
~3/4 cup coconut kefir
salt

Put the prepared herbs and vegetables in a bowl and then pour the kefir in - add as much as you think it needs. Add salt to taste. Good with bread.


I wouldn't have added as much garlic as S did, but it was good.

White gazpacho

With all the recent hot weather I made some kind of semi-logical jump and got to thinking about the food we'd eaten in Catalonia years ago. I want to try making aioli, the proper way, with just garlic, salt and olive oil. I also thought about gazpacho - we were buying it in tetra paks and drinking it in the car, out of the carton, while driving our rented Smart car around the Pyrenees. Both the red kind and the white kind - it was the first time I'd come across the white kind, and we were wowed: fresh, almondy, vegetal, liquid goodness. I don't think I have had it since: it is not available out of supermarket fridges round here, last time I checked. But what better way to work on our excess of cucumbers?

Note: this is my version of a white gazpacho, adapted to what I remembered / what I had in the fridge. I think it is fairly adaptable, but I also think this is not exactly authentic.

1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 cup water
2 large cucumbers, peeled and chopped into big chunks
1 Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored and chopped into big chunks
1 clove of garlic, peeled
1 tbsp cider vinegar
2 tbsp olive oil
big pinch of sea salt
1/2 cup of slivered, blanched almonds

Put the breadcrumbs in a cup measure, fill up with the water and let soak while you prep the other ingredients. Put the peeled, chopped cucumbers and apple in a blender. Add the other ingredients to the blender, adding the breadcrumb-water mix last. Blend until smooth. Chill thoroughly before eating - and you can add an ice cube per cup or bowl of soup when serving to make sure it is properly cold.


This turned out waaayyy better than I hoped. It is delicious. Perfect combination of sweet, sharp, salty, savoury, tangy, refreshing... Nice and white as well - minor brown flecks from the breadcrumbs but other than that everything was ~white (peeled cucumber and apple, garlic, almonds etc).

Sweet, salty pickled cucumber slices

We had sooo many cucumbers: some still from last week's CSA, some from this week's, and even more because we picked up another CSA for a friend who is out of town. In total about 12 medium-large cucumbers. So many! I decided to pickle some of them. I have promised S I will try and make Grillo's-style picked cucumbers, but we had no grape leaves or dill, so that is sidelined. I wasn't feeling very creative, and liked the use of celery seed in this recipe (and had all the ingredients), so I just followed it.

(Made one large and one medium jar)

2 lb cucumbers, sliced 1/4-inch thick (use smaller ones if you have them)
2 sweet onions, thinly sliced
1/2 cup large-crystal sea salt
1 cup sugar
1 cup distilled white vinegar
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
2 tbsp mustard seed (used 1 tbsp brown mustard seed and 1 tbsp yellow)
2 tbsp coriander seed
1/2 tsp celery seed

Put the cucumber, onion and salt in a large bowl and mix. Cover with ice* and let stand at room temperature for two hours, mixing at least once along the way. Put sugar, vinegar and seeds in a large pan and bring to the boil. Rinse the cucumbers and onions and drain well. Add the cucumber mixture to the vinegar mixture and bring almost back to a boil. Remove from heat, let cool a little, then transfer to clean jars with non-metallic lids. Store in the fridge for up to a month: they will be ready to eat after ~24 hours.

*I didn't really have any ice (just 3 cubes), and I wasn't quite sure what it was for anyway, so I just set this up without ice (well, with 3 cubes), and made sure to rinse the veg well when their salting time was up. The pickle did come out quite salty - wonder if this was why?


I wasn't sure about these at first - thought they were a bit too salty, and that perhaps there was a few too many seeds. But despite these considerations, S has been enjoying them from the start, and I think they have matured a little after several days. Still, the next batch will contain less / different seeds and I will wash out the salt even more thoroughly (and/or use less) - think my next batch will contain turmeric, garlic, mustard seed, celery seed, chilli flakes, perhaps anise or fennel seed, or peppercorns...

2 lb cucumbers, sliced 1/4-inch thick (use smaller ones if you have them)
2 sweet onions, thinly sliced
4 cloves garlic, sliced lengthwise
1/4 cup large-crystal sea salt
1 cup sugar
1 cup distilled white vinegar
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
2 tbsp mustard seed
1 tsp celery seed
1/2 tsp chilli flakes

Overnight couscous

This recipe (5th one down) seemed made for these hot hot days/nights: loads of fresh veg and herbs and absolutely no cooking. I was excited about the process as well: the idea of using the juices from the veg to hydrate the couscous is simple but super smart. S doesn't always like couscous, but since his main complaints are that it can be wet and tasteless I thought this method could be a solution.

100g couscous
3 large, juicy tomatoes, roughly chopped
½ cucumber, peeled and diced
50g parsley, chopped
25g mint, chopped
2 tbsp chives, chopped
1 small red onion, finely chopped (used 2 spring onions)
50g raisins
25g shelled pistachios
1-2 tbsp capers (or nasturtium seeds, or dry, salty black olives)
Juice of ½-1 lemon
Dash of hot sauce
Salt and black pepper

Put the couscous into a large bowl and add the tomatoes, cucumber, parsley, mint, chives, red onion, raisins, pistachios, capers and lemon juice. Mix well. Season to taste with salt, pepper and a few shakes of hot sauce. Cover, and leave in the refrigerator for at least 4-8 hours. Let it come to room temperature before serving.


All the herbs (chives, mint, parsley) came from my pots, which makes me proud. My herbs have done fairly well this year.

This was a huge success! It formed the basis of a fancy (but easy!) picnic (this, some bread, elderflower cordial and fizzy water / water, and a few fresh apricots) that we took to Shakespeare on the Common (Two Gentlemen of Verona, Vegas / Ratpack-style) and it worked brilliantly in several ways...

1) I could make it the night before and store it in the fridge so all I had to do before rushing out to the show was chuck it in a plastic box on the back of my bike, and it was perfect when we got there.
2) It simultaneously, preemptively solves the potential problems of couscous getting over-cooked or claggy, and of all the excess liquid that juicy veg like tomatoes and cucumber produce - the couscous is texturally perfect, and extra tasty because instead of just water it has soaked up all the juices; while the salad has a great overall texture with none of the messy liquid or wateriness that can plague this kind of thing, which also meant that the herbs and veg were in great shape after a day in the fridge.

...and S loved it (it was probably a good move mixing couscous with so much parsley - parsley is one of his all-time faves), so perhaps couscous can be on the menu sometimes after all. I am pretty enthused about this overnight method: feel like there is a lot of potential for experimentation.


Note: I tried a quicker version of this: add a little boiling water to the dry couscous, cover, leave for a bit, then toss. Then prep and add the other ingredients, juiciest first, tossing after each addition. Finally, taste for seasoning and acidity. By the time everything was prepped and added, the couscous was perfectly softened. The exact amount of water to add is guesswork, based on how juicy you think the other ingredients will be and how soon you want to eat it. This is a wonderfully summery dish, and happily adaptable - this time I had no parsley so used coriander, which obv tasted different but similar overall effect. Also subbed lime for lemon, spring onions for chives+red onions, currants for raisins...

Cucumber and coconut vinegar

I bought some coconut vinegar and came by a lot of cucumbers, wanted to test it all out.  I haven't yet noticed a coconutty taste to the vinegar (it seems quite sharp), although I suppose there are a lot of other strong, distracting flavours in this recipe.

3 tbsp coconut vinegar
3 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp soy sauce
1 large cucumber
1 tsp chilli flakes (or chopped fresh chilli)
1-2 tbsp roasted unsalted peanuts, chopped
1-2 tbsp coriander or mint, chopped

Mix the coconut vinegar, sugar and soy sauce in a small pan and heat til the sugar is dissolved.  Allow to cool.  Peel, deseed and dice the cucumber and put in a bowl with the remaining ingredients.  Add vinegar-sugar mixture, toss and then eat.

Summer rolls

The weather has eased off a bit these last few days, but it's still been hot.  We've been eating a lot of salads (exciting salads, with lettuce from Mike and fried fresh garlic (from ECO), courgette (from my secret garden) and tempeh, and so forth, but still just salads), there have been a few nights late getting back from work / play and not feeling like cooking, and Monday we went for awesome dumplings and edamame/fresh tofu/mustard greens @ Gourmet Dumpling House in Chinatown after investing in a tent @ Hilton Tent City (both were wonderful places).

So anyway, Tuesday S bought a summer roll for lunch and we were like: these are really good, why haven't we made them for ages?  And last night I got home and he'd started prepping them - yesssss.  They are the soft, rice paper wrapped rolls often seen in Vietnamese food places, filled with fine white noodles, tofu and fresh herbs / veggies.  I've seen them called fresh rolls as well, but 'summer rolls' seems really appropriate for right now.

(made about 8)

For the rolls:
8-10 circular rice noodle sheets
1 portion fine white rice (or bean) noodles, cooked until done (few minutes), drained and run under cold water to cool
1/4 cucumber, chopped into large matchsticks (or raw courgette)
1 medium carrot, peeled and chopped into large matchsticks, steamed until just tender
2 pieces dry or firm tofu, sliced into pieces similar to the veggies
beansprouts
lettuce
fresh coriander
fresh mint

For peanut dipping sauce:
2 tbsp peanut butter
1 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
1 in piece of fresh ginger, finely chopped
1 tsp tamarind paste
1-2 tsp soy sauce

To assemble the rolls, fill a large bowl with hot water.  Take a rice noodle sheet and immerse in the water.  Soak for a few seconds, until it is soft. It will become quite fragile, so remove it carefully and spread out on a flat board. Put a ~rectangular pile of noodles in the middle of the circle. Arrange cucumber, tofu, carrot, coriander, mint, lettuce and beansprouts in ~a line along the middle of the noodle pile (any combination will do really, at a minimum you probably want carrot, cucumber, tofu and coriander). Then roll it up: fold up one side, tuck in the ends, then roll and close as tightly as you can. The rice sheets will be a bit sticky and it should hold together reasonably well.

To make the dipping sauce, mix all the ingredients together in a small bowl until well combined, then add water until a good consistency is reached.


These were really good - exactly right for these warm nights, simple, quick, and just as good as any I've eaten anywhere. I packed some up in a box lined with lettuce leaves and that seemed to help stop them from sticking.

Pickled cucumbers

One of two jars

I was thinking about pickles.  I thought at first that pickled beetroot was the only pickled veg I really liked.  But then we had a jar of pickled cornichons and I remembered I really like those too.  So then I had my eye out for really small cucumbers or cornichons.  I found some pretty tiny cucumbers at the Haymarket, and decided to try pickling them.  It was really hard to choose the pickling method.  I know what I want them to be like, but it will be a month before I get to find out how close I got...  I know what I don't want them to be like too:  I really don't enjoy the massive, chunky, fizzy, fermented, overtly garlicky style of pickled cucumber - the ones I like are the dainty, firm / snappy, delicately herb / spice flavoured ones - perhaps it's the French style, but I'm not sure.  I tried to follow the combo from the ingredient label of the last jar of cornichons we bought, and used a combination of recipe methods. Hopefully they will turn out.  Now I just have to wait and see...

~1 1/4 lb of the smallest cucumbers you can find (these were the Lebanese type, 4-6 in long and ~3/4 in wide)
~3 tbsp salt
half a medium onion, sliced quite fine
3-4 cloves garlic, sliced
10-15 small sprigs dill (tarragon might have been better, but we had dill so dill it was)
~2 tbsp yellow mustard seeds
~1 tbsp black peppercorns
~2 cups vinegar (used 1 cup white vinegar plus 1 cup cider vinegar)

Chop the cucumbers into 1-2 in long pieces, put into a colander and salt generously in layers.  Put colander over a bowl with a plate+weight on top and leave for ~24 hours.

Rinse the cucumbers and dab dry with a clean cloth.  Clean and sterilize the jars (this amount neatly filled two large ex-caper jars ~450g).

Pack layers of cucumbers into the jars, interspersed with the garlic, onion, dill and spices.  Leave an inch of space at the top.

Heat the vinegar to just about boiling point in a pan.  Remove from the heat, fill the jars right to the top and cover immediately.

Store in a cool, dark place for at least one month before eating.


Update April 29th 2012: They are good!  Nice and crisp, with a good, sour vinegar taste but no fermentation.  Bonus pickled onion and garlic.  Pretty much exactly what I was aiming for, give or take tinier cucumbers and tarragon vs dill.

Quick 'pickled' cucumber

A quick and tasty way of eating up cucumbers / making a side dish to eat with... anything really.

2 small cucumbers (or 1 large)
1 1/2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp sweet chili sauce
1/2 tsp salt

Wash, peel (optional) and thinly slice the cucumber(s).  Put in a bowl and add the vinegar, sweet chili and salt.  Mix up and eat.  Leave in the fridge for an hour or so for the flavours to mingle optimally.