(Recipe from a cookbook from 1899)
500 g garden cucumbers, 4 tbsp. oil, 1/2 gstr. tsp. salt, 1 tbsp. vinegar, 1 Msp. white pepper, to taste: 1 Msp. sugar
Cut the peeled cucumbers with the slicer into fine slices and arrange just before serving as follows:
Mix the cucumber slices with the oil carefully. Only now add the salt, vinegar, sugar and pepper, mix quickly and serve immediately.
Even better: serve the cucumber slices mixed only with oil and serve the marinade with them in a small jug, which everyone helps themselves to as they wish.
This preparation preserves, as a result of the oil film, the natural cucumber juice that comes out from the early salting, which makes the cucumber salad hard to digest.
You can add additional chive rolls.
Cucumber Raita
For 4 people: 1 cucumber, 1 small onion, 2 cups yogurt, 2 tbsp oil, 1 tsp ground cumin, chili powder (or cayenne pepper), 1 bunch fresh cilantro, salt.
Peel the cucumber, remove the seeds and grate finely. Mix with the finely chopped onion, oil and yogurt. Stir in the spices and chopped coriander greens, season properly and serve cold.
Pairs great with rice, vegetables or just fresh white bread.
From tiny to huge: cucumbers
Cucumbers, which belong to the group of gourd plants, have been cultivated in India since 3000. They are refreshing because of their high water content, have few calories, but are rich in vitamins A and C, and fine ladies freshen up their complexion with cucumber slices. Despite all the good qualities, there is the derogatory term "cucumber troop", which does not suggest a great appreciation. Admittedly, cucumber salad is not as nutritious as a huge cutlet with greasy fried potatoes, and many people have problems digesting it to boot. It's all in the preparation, and I had to look up a cookbook from 1899 to be alerted to the fundamental mishandling of cucumber salad that continues to this day.
Norbert Siebenhaar, of course, who makes a point of saying that he and his wife Helga don't deal in fruit and vegetables in any way, but run a specialist shop, he also knows what's important about cucumber salad: if it's to be a real pleasure, it must not come into contact with salt until as late as possible.
In high summer, cucumbers have their peak season. Snake cucumbers, the most common, meanwhile, always grow in a glass house because the heavy ones - one is tempted to call them fruits - could not withstand the wind outdoors. When buying them, make sure they are shiny, plump and crunchy, but not too thick, because then the seeds are too. Singles buy mini or portion cucumbers, they are a cultivated variant of the snake cucumbers. Significantly smaller than them are also garden cucumbers, but have noticeably more flavor. They grow outdoors, take on rather irregular shapes and have a fair amount of seeds. If you are bothered by them in your salad, halve the peeled or unpeeled cucumbers lengthwise and scrape out the seeds with a teaspoon. The cored cucumbers are then not so easy to shave, but with feeling and a sharp slicer you should still be able to do it. Nothing speaks against it, by the way, the so prepared cucumber halves in more or less small cubes to cut.
The small, crooked cucumbers, knows Norbert Siebenhaar, need their time, they are nevertheless grown exclusively in the open field, and the expert praises the excellent quality of his supplier Bullmann from Oberrad. Finally, mustard cucumbers are nothing more than sweet and sour pickled garden cucumbers that take on a yellow colour when ripe. Of course, there are always attempts to launch new varieties, but the interest of their customers is low because they suspect genetic experiments, observe the Siebenhaars. Their favourite cucumber salad goes with cream, lemon juice, salt, pepper, sugar and dill; Indian cucumber raita, on the other hand, gets its subtle zing from yoghurt, cumin, chilli and coriander.
Fruit and Vegetable Specialty
Helga and Norbert Siebenhaar
Reichsapfelstr. 25
65201 Wiesbaden-Schierstein
Phone: 0611 - 261222
Opening hours: Mon-Fri 7-13 u. 15-18, Sat 7-12.30, (Wed closed in the afternoon)
from Waldemar Thomas