It’s late August and that means I am right in the middle of that 2-2 1/2 month window when I will eat a BLT. While I try not to be a “food snob” too often, when it comes to BLT’s I have to admit, I am a full blown food snob. If you haven’t read my rant about BLT’s, and wish to, you can find it here. This week our, when I went to pick up our CSA share it not only contained tomatoes and a mix of baby lettuces, but our bread share included a wonderful sourdough bread. All I needed was the bacon, already sitting at home in the fridge, as was the mayo. Score!!!!

Because I wasn’t really in the mood to do much cooking, and because we received yet again, more cucumbers in our box, I decided to wipe up a quick Asian inspired cucumber salad to accompany the BLT’s. This salad doesn’t get much more simple, but for it to be at its best it should be made at least 3-4 hours before you plan on serving it. Overnight is even better.

Cucumber Salad
serves 4

2 large cucumbers, seeds removed, and peeled if skin is thick
1/2 onion, red or yellow
1/3 cup rice wine vinegar
2 Tbl. sugar
1/4 tsp. sesame oil
1/2 tsp. sambal (garlic-chile paste)
1 tsp. soy sauce

Slice the cucumbers and onion as thin as you can and place in a bowl. In another bowl, combine the remaining ingredients, adjusting the sambal to suit your heat level. 1/2 tsp. of sambal will give the cucumbers a pretty good kick. Pour the sauce over the cucumbers and toss to coat. Cover and allow to marinate for at least 3-4 hours or overnight.

I’ve been a little lax in sharing my recipes inspired by our CSA share. It’s not that we haven’t been using all the great produce from Good Earth Farm, it’s just that I have been behind in uploading the recipes. It didn’t help that our good friend Kim celebrated her birthday this past weekend so most of Saturday night was spent celebrating (I do most of my writing later at night when the kid is asleep-less distractions!). And Sunday was spent at Breakfast on the Farm and hanging outside with the neighbors, playing Washers (kind of like Horseshoes). It was way too nice to be inside, writing on the computer!!

Our weather, here in Wisconsin, has been up and down, like much of the nation’s. One day it’s 85° and the next it’s 55° so I decided that I wanted to make a soup that would taste great either hot or cold. That way I had all my bases covered. Heat it up and it would be perfect for a cool, rainy day or serve it chilled, with a salad of the baby greens we received in our share, for a light, hot weather lunch. Potato soup is perfect for this kind of application as it often works both as a hot or a chilled soup. The potatoes would also be the perfect foil for the plethora of green garlic, which we had gotten for the past 2 weeks of our share, that I wanted to use up. This makes a wonderful, comforting warm soup, yet not too hearty for a summer day. Chill it down it makes a great cold soup, but blend in some cucumber and you have a perfect early summer luncheon when paired with a salad, or in our case, thinly sliced radishes set atop of buttered honey wheat bread.

Potato and Green Garlic Soup-Two ways
serves 4

6 bulbs green garlic with 4-5″ of the stems left on
2 pounds russet (Idaho) potatoes
1 rib celery
1 cup half and half
water
salt
pepper
freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 cup sour cream
1-2 cucumbers (seedless as the skins of regular cucumbers are too thick and bitter)

Roughly chop the green garlic and celery and place in a medium sized pot. Peel and slice the potatoes. Add to the pot, along with the half and half. Add enough water to just barely cover the potatoes. Add salt, pepper and a few gratings (or a small pinch) of ground nutmeg. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook until the potatoes start to fall apart, about 20 minutes depending on how thickly or thinly you slice the potatoes. Puree the soup, adding additional water, if necessary to achieve a consistency you like. Stir in the sour cream, adjust the seasoning and serve. Or, at this point chill the soup until completely cold. Return to the blender and add the cucumber, roughly chopped. Blend until smooth. At this point you will probably also have to thin the soup again as it thickens as it cools. You will also have to re-season the soup as the cold will deaden the seasoning a bit. No matter at what temperature you serve the soup it will be improved by garnishing with a sprinkle of fresh herbs. There are many to choose from, but my choices would be rosemary, if serving the soup hot and tarragon is serving it cold. Be careful as both herbs can be overpowering so just a light sprinkling would be fine.

I served this soup cold on Saturday and accompanied it with thinly sliced radishes served over slices of honey wheat bread slathered with copious amounts of butter. It may not be the most inventive way to serve radishes, but there are reasons some foods become classics and buttered radish sandwiches fall easily into this category. If you’ve never tried it do yourself a favor and try now, with fresh early summer radishes. Just make sure to a good, dense bread, such as the honey wheat loaf I used.

It’s getting to be that time of year again, when Wanda and I start considering what we want to can for consumption over the winter months.  I’m not sure that we will do a whole lot this year, as we still have a lot of canned items leftover from the previous 2 seasons.  I imagine that, at the very least, we will make a couple varieties of pickled vegetables.  One of my favorite pickles comes from my Dad.  I’m not to sure where he got it.  It can’t be too old of a recipe as these pickles are not canned but must be refrigerated so they don’t spoil.  This makes them an easy first pickle for someone who has never pickled before.  It’s also nice to make when the weather is just too hot and you don’t feel like standing over boiling pots of jars, but you have a bunch of cucumbers that must be turned into pickles before they go soft.

I like this recipe because, while sweet, these pickles are not overly sweet and the onions add a nice subtle bite to them. Follow the recipe as listed below, or if you like onions as much as I do, go ahead and double the onions. There should still be enough liquid to cover it all.

Refrigerator Pickles
1 gallon pickling cucumbers, thinly sliced
4 medium onions, thinly sliced
5 cups sugar
3 cups white vinegar
1/3 cup pickling salt
1 teaspoon celery seed
1 teaspoon mustard seed
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon dry mustard

1. Pack cucumbers and onions into a nonreactive jar (glass, stainless or a crock)
2. Mix together the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil to dissolve the sugar. Allow to cool completely.
3. Pour the liquid over the cucumber and onions and place in refrigerator,allowing to mature for at least 1 week before eating.
4. Keep refrigerated.

Years ago, when I attended New England Culinary Institute there was a little, local distillery that made a cucumber flavored gin. We had discovered it by accident, but I was glad we had as it made the greatest Gin & Tonics I had ever tasted. While the juniper flavor was still there it didn’t overpower and the combination of the cucumber, lime and tonic created a wonderfully refreshing beverage meant for chasing the heat of summer away. Veranda Gin was well ahead of its time. It was one of the few well crafted gins being created in small batches and using flavors beyond juniper to give their drink a unique taste all its own. Today many distilleries are experimenting with gin and flavors besides juniper, but it took them 10 years to catch up to what Vermont Distillers had created. Unfortunately, I believe that Vermont Distillers no longer exists as I’ve spent a number of hours searching the web to find any information on them. Most references I find are dated from the mid 1990′s and earlier. I had never forgotten those Gin & Tonics though and over the years I have perfected my own cucumber accented Gin & Tonic, which I happily share with you all.

Cucumber Juice
1 1/2 Cucumbers
2 Tbsp. Water

Peel the whole cucumber, but leave the 1/2 cucumber unpeeled. Roughly chop and place in a blender along with the water. Blend until as smooth as possible (about 1 minute). Strain through a fine mesh strainer pressing down on the pulp to extract as much liquid as possible. Depending on your cucumbers this should yield approximately 2 cups-plenty for a night of drinking with friends and then some unless you’re a lush like me!

Summertime Gin & Tonic
1 1/2 oz. Gin (preferably one with a little less juniper flavor such as Plymouth’s or Tanqueray 10)
2 oz. Cucumber Juice
2 wedges Lime (cut into 1/8th)
Tonic Water

Fill a tall Collins glass with ice. Add the gin and cucumber juice. Squeeze 1 wedge of lime into the glass and drop the lime in also. Fill with tonic water and garnish with the additional lime, allowing your guest to add more lime flavor if they want.